Bees can't shake off bad luck

By Brian Dick - Birmingham Post
March 17 2006

Despite watching his team labour in weather conditions severe enough to send a polar bear into hibernation, Phil Maynard saw fit to evoke a few cricketing analogies after Pertemps Bees returned from Penzance empty-handed.

According to Maynard, the club's director of rugby, the decisive factor in their 21-13 defeat to Cornish Pirates was the fact that they lost the coin toss before the game and ended up playing into the worst of the elements rather than with them.

After building up a 13-0 lead, with the wind to their backs, Bees succumbed to their hosts' late onslaught and, after Tim Walsh's pass close to his own line was intercepted, they sacrificed the loss bonus their efforts probably deserved.

The reverse kept them in the relegation battle at the bottom of National One and only two points ahead of 13th-placed Doncaster.

With the division's second-ranked team, Bedford, to come to Sharmans Cross Road this weekend, Bees could have done with a little better fortune on Sunday.

"It was a great performance," Maynard said. "It was just a shame the game turned on the toss of a coin. They put us into bat and we didn't get enough runs.

"You sometimes wonder what you have done in a former life to deserve such luck. There was a fairly hefty wind behind us in the first half but when we turned round there was sleet and snow blowing into our faces.

"We were still close to beating a full-time side with just a few minutes to go. It was the first game in five that we have not taken points."

They need to return to that level of production when Bedford come calling on Saturday. "The equation is simple, if we look like we have done for the past six weeks then we have every chance of beating Bedford," Maynard said.

Even though his side are still perilously positioned at the foot of the division, in recent weeks - which have produced three wins and a two-point loss - he has seen enough to convince him that his charges have what it takes to beat the drop.

"We might not be getting the results I want but I am sleeping at night because my players are putting their lives on the line to get out of this situation. Our work ethic is good, our players enjoy each others' company and we try for each other," he said.

Bees will give a midweek fitness test to flanker Tu Tamarua before they finalise their side for the visit of Bedford.

The former Harlequins wing-forward, a key figure in the back row this season, missed out in Penzance after he suffered a strained knee ligament in the victory over Exeter Chiefs last month.

Otherwise there are no fresh injuries from their long trip to Cornwall but the fitness of lock Ed Orgee is being monitored.

A persistent knee injury has restricted his effectiveness in the second half of the season.

Wing Nick Baxter, who is also restricted by a knee injury, is again likely to be named as a replacement and he will hope to end his three-month wait for the try he needs to become the first player to reach the 150 league-try landmark.

Baxter, who scored his first 88 league tries for Worcester, scored his 149th try at Doncaster on December 10 but has since made only one start, in the defeat at Nottingham on December 27.