Falcon gorge on Saintly mistakes

By Beef
September 25 2005

It was a day that started full of promise, first home game of the season, bright sunshine, slightly cool breeze, perfect playing conditions, but ended as a day full of hope.

It was a day that started full of promise, first home game of the season, bright sunshine, slightly cool breeze, perfect playing conditions, but ended as a day full of hope. Hope that we can turn it around next week, hope that a certain British Lion can start hitting his jumpers, hope that all the little things that were tried yesterday come off, hope that we don’t witness another shambles like that and hope that we avoid relegation! Is it too soon to start talking about the ‘R’ word? On yesterdays evidence, I think not. And this worries me. I always look for the positive elements in any defeats, but to be honest, I’m struggleing. Whilst not wanting to point fingers, I can’t, for the life of me, think why Hartley was subbed – he was throwing well, hooking well, hitting the rucks and doing his job more than competently. The replacement was dire. Perhaps he needs more time with the Wanderers to get match fit, regain his accuracy, remember he’s a front row, not a winger, whatever. The other local hero needs to remember that he’s 16st, big, tall and fast. When attacking smaller opponents, run AT THEM OR ROUND THEM – the stutter step doesn’t work! the whole Rugby community knows your going to step off your right foot! All that happens is that your giving a side-on angle for a tackle, which is relatively easy. On to the game. We’ve all read the reports, seen the match, what can I add. We started well 5 minutes of pressure, including in a lovely try, called back by the man in the middle, after which we seemed to retreat into our shells. No ambition, route one ball, eventually letting the backs have a go – ‘Oo look he’s got tackled, shall we go and secure the ball? Whoops, too late’. The story of the match really. Ten minutes to go, 10 points behind, we decide to up the tempo. Sound familier? Echoes of last season? 10 minutes of relentless pressure, scrambled defence from the falcons, creaking at the seams. And 3 points. Why the Hell can’t we play like that for the full 80 minutes? What’s the answer? If I knew that, I’d be coaching the team, not writing a downbeat review for the Supporters site. Perhaps a change of mindset. Bring in Richmond and Diggin. Get a bit of steel in the pack, can we afford to wait for the SH reinforcements? Oh yes, the positive note – I managed to knock out about 400 SWH4 wristbands……