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We went into the game fearing our opposition far too much, concentrating on their standing in the league rather than concentrating on our game. We should have taken heart from our victory over them in the BBQ match and our hard fought win against the police the previous week.
We were camped in our half for the vast majority of the opening exchanges because of many reasons including our execution, poor positioning, lack of intensity and poor kicking. This led to a Thales line-out and they spread it wide and our defence parted like the red see to let their outside centre in for the opening try. Their kicker converted to make the score 7-0.
Having started slowly the British finally woke up 25 minutes into the game, when Eudes pounced on a loose ball and skilfully hacked it down to their 5-metre line where with pressure the British had a line-out. But several efforts from the forwards were repelled by the strong opposition defence which was good throughout the game. Thales ended up clearing their lines and it was another spurned opportunity for the British which is quickly becoming a trend this season.
Towards the end of the half the British realised that they had a chance in the game and started putting the oppo under some pressure which resulted in a penalty near the touchline.
Half-time 7-3
The second half was not good and we never really got going, disorganised at times and again our execution let us down. The result of this was that our heads went down and players were loosing faith. A penalty from their kicker and then a Gary Owen produced a try under the posts. They were quickly up 17-3. Our team lacked aggression and ideas all over the park, they were bullying us off the ball in the breakdown and in the backs we were playing Fijian rugby when English rugby would have sufficed! In some moments of madness later on we lost our discipline and this got to us although I have to say I have never seen grown men over react to something so small in all my life. There seems to be a lot of violence in these games something us young players are not used to seeing and all I can say is that if we can keep our cool then it will benefit us no end!
Overall we were beaten by a more organised team and they were much better techinically than us.
Things for us to work on in training and for nex weeks game:
1. At the rucks and mauls we need to get lower! We are getting bullied off the ball at the moment and when we do get low we spoil their ball. Try and get some pads going on tues to try and rectify this. Also our ball presentation on the ground is not good we get into difficult positions and end up giving away penalties because of this or the ball becomes very very slow and we are unable to do anything with it because it gives the defence time to fan out and orgainse.
2. We talk about hot and cold but this rarely happens during a game there are either far too many forwards hanging off between the 9 and 10. You need to listen to daz and give him options off the ruck for 2nd phase and this creates the continuity that we really really need!
3. In the backs we are playing too flat all the time we just throw it wide and never look like we are running with intent or conviction. Also when we go into contact or make a break there is never any support so the runner must always be supported by anyone near him it doesn�t matter what position you are you need to be able to ruck! One last thing is that we throw away far too much 50/50 ball I am guilty as much as anyone for this and if in doubt just hold onto the ball and go down and we will recyle the ball and go from there!
4. Finally execution, I know I have mentioned it a lot but I have not seen any of the things we have been doing in training out on the pitch. Make sure that everyone knows every move from every postion and everyone knows every line-out call so that we can carry on if people aren�t there!
We are getting there slowly but if we work on the simple thing then it will come together and we will start to see results I promise!
Barks
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