Review of the ZP Week 2

By PerryGo
September 10 2002

OK, I was wrong. Never let it be said that PerryGo can't admit when his predictions fail to materialise. Burkey was definitely not Man of the Match on Sat. Having said that, if he had played (he was injured) he might well have been. Believe it or not, this was a game we could realistically have won

Glimpsing at the message board after the game, I see two schools of thought emerging from the disappointment of losing by 24 points – on the one hand, dark, despondent despair and predictions of relegation; on the other, glimmers of light, encouragement and an expectation of better results ahead.

It has to be said that the early doom and gloom merchants seem to be drawing their conclusions from watching the match on the radio or the internet rather than the stands, which may be why they are seeing things as they are. Personally, having been there on Saturday, I’m more relaxed.

It was certainly a scrappy kind of game, but people should know that for the majority of the match there was nothing between the teams. But for two missed kicks by Slemen, the HT score would have been 13-12, with everything to play for. Before anyone gets on the guy’s back over those missed kicks, one of them was from the halfway line and - ‘kickable’ though it was, with a bit of a following breeze - you can’t expect the same percentage results from that distance as closer in. Burkey missed an easier one at home last week, remember. Mind you, at this level, you can make a case that David should have got one of them, so 13-9 would probably have been a fair HT reflection. Overall, he really didn’t have a bad game either – he put in some solid defence (one first half tackle, covering back in our 22, was probably a try-saver) and some clearances to touch under great pressure.

Harlequins’ defensive shortcomings around the fringes from the last match seemed to have been cured during the week – well done, guys - and the defence was, for the most part, pretty solid. Few first up tackles were missed and there were no obvious weak links. Again and again, the Cheetahs (and, yes, they lived up to the nickname, folks…) were held back and for most of the 80 minutes possession was probably about equal. Stimpson kicked very well, both out of hand and at goal, which enabled them to keep us under pressure and relieve a good deal of their own. He put in a good all-round performance.

Until the final quarter, it could still really have gone either way. Particularly after the break, Quins had them on the rack. Unfortunately, the Tigers’ pack is a pretty powerful machine, and as the match went on they began to dominate. It was a shame, because all match long it looked as if our backs could take their backs apart - man for man, we looked better.

My friend Oz Healey didn’t let me down by producing a truly dreadful performance at fly half – I could hardly have written the script better myself. In his defence, the Tigers’ faithful will point out his break through a tackle late in the game (and maybe also to an excellent miss-pass off his left hand that resulted in the Stimpson try in the corner) but, apart from one little ‘feint’ to take a penalty that made Quins’ players advance before he kicked it, which seemed to absolutely thrill the crowd – wow, great play, Austin – he had a complete ‘mare. Great footballer, poor fly half at this level.

The fact Leicester had Ellis (a scrum half) playing on the left wing for much of the game, together with the general ineptness of their three-quarter play (and the solidity of our defence) made me think it was only a matter of time before we ran in a try, but it was not to be. If only we had been able to get quality possession and move it out quickly. The excellence of last week’s backs’ moves rarely manifested on Saturday, and one Leicester try was, in effect, gifted to them by the suicidal decision to run a play from a set piece inside Quins’ 22 that resulted in a knock-on and possession to the opposition.

Ace, back in the hooking position, struggled with his throwing-in (and even contrived to lose one scrum against the head – a rare event in rugby these days) which meant we conceded a number of key line outs, including one from a decision to kick a penalty to the 22 in hope of setting up a try. It was sometimes hard to tell whether it was a case of Ben Kay stealing them or Ace missing his jumper, but the ones he threw over Diprose’s head were clear enough.

One of the low points of the match came when it was already pretty well all over, result-wise, with Quins being shoved back at a 5 metre scrum far enough for the replacement scrum half Jamie Hamilton to touch down for the try. Looks like this week’s focus for JK on the training paddock is going to be ‘the set piece’, an area that worked very well against another powerful pack in the Glawster game but slipped back a bit this week. Credit though to Leicester forwards – they’re powerful and skilful, as you might expect looking at the international pedigree there.

Arguably - and perhaps, at Welford Road, hardly surprisingly - Leicester had slightly the better of the refereeing decisions. Not a huge deal either way, maybe, but two Quins’ attacks were interfered with by players running back New Zealand-style, from an offside position just in front of the passer. Not penalised on either occasion – not even (that I could see) an advantage played. Both would have been kickable penalties around the 22 metre line. As would a penalty for a deliberate knock-on that was deemed accidental.

It was amusing – no, actually it was irritating – to see Jonno (that fine role model of English national team captaincy) immediately go down with an injury to his shoelace right in front of where Slemen was about to try to convert a penalty Quins had just been awarded. Fortunately, the little stunt didn’t put him off kicking it. Shabby stuff.

Folks, when we start trying to draw conclusions at this early stage of the season we have to be sensible about it. Let’s look at things rationally:

We have just played two of the toughest teams in the league (it would be hard to argue the Premiership will not be won by one of them) including Leicester away. We could easily have won the first one and we were not disgraced in the second. After seeing what Glawster did to Sale this week (albeit at Kingsholm) it puts the quality of last week’s performance against them in perspective. And who last won a league match at Welford Road?
There were errors on both sides on Saturday, but Leicester made a lot more than we did – and who can say to what extent the errors were forced upon them by Quins? The key thing is “Are we making progress?” and “Is that progress ongoing and tangible”. I would say it is.
Before the season, several of us were saying that the true measure of our start to the season should be taken after four matches, not two. We have important home fixtures now against Leeds and Irish, and we should be aiming at 8-9 points from those two.
In the last couple of years, our poor starts to the season have sunk the confidence of the team, and fear of failure seemed to grip them, putting on even more pressure when they next went out on the pitch. It’s so important that they believe in themselves – there is no reason at all to be panicking. We need to be rational - the few who are bleating ‘we’ve seen all this before’ and ‘welcome to National One’ should go and support Irish instead, who look like they are going to be in much deeper doodies than Harlequins come the end of the season. Confidence is important – confident teams play poorly and win; teams lacking confidence can play well enough but still lose.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Premiership, the interesting results continued to flow.

Leeds thrashed Irish at Headingley, thanks to a couple of tries and Braam van Straaten’s boot (ironic that a South African should be the cause of their downfall!). Quins will certainly need to be disciplined when we meet Leeds next weekend, otherwise the man will likely punish us too.

Wycombe Wasps Wanderers managed to score 38 points to beat Bristol (and yet conceded 35 in the process). Once again, the match was decided deep into injury time – the sixth minute in this case.

Any side that can score so many points has reason to be optimistic. On the other hand, it is a dangerous strategy to think you’ll get away with leaking points by simply scoring more yourselves, like some Quins teams of old! Wasps were lucky, maybe (a penalty try ‘saved’ them) on this occasion.

Hurry along the day when all matches have an independent timekeeper, as each referee seems to have a totally different way of calculating it, causing anguish, frustration and oftentimes dissent too from a slightly suspicious public! Making a mystery out of something that the rest of the world would consider ought to be plain and transparent (such as timekeeping) is so ‘rugby union’ isn’t it? This may be the first thing I’ve ever considered should be imported into our game from soccer… it may also be the last, mind.

As previously mentioned, Glaws destroyed Sale at Kingsholm. This one surprised me, because I expected it to be closer, given Sale’s (sorry, Sharks’) achievements last season that they seemed poised to build on in this one. Maybe it illustrates the point - many observers have already made - that this year the gaps between the teams are not that great, and many matches will go either way on the day. I think we will also see a lot of close results, which is good for the public in general, although nerve-racking for the supporters!

Northampton go rolling on, as do Sallaries. Good wins for both of them, who are looking like much improved sides over a year ago. Hardened messageboarders know that it is a long accepted fact here that “its all about the players, not the coaches” – or is it? Was that last year’s assumption? What do Saints and Sallaries both have in common, apart from the letter ‘S’?

Overall, the results this week went more according to expectations – well, PerryGo’s at least. I am still tipping Bath, Irish and Newcastle to be bottom-end-of-the-table strugglers and – unfashionable though it is to say it – Leeds as well. At the moment, though, they are doing a great job of proving me and half the country wrong…