I asked you to be on the pitch at 1.10pm and I sent you the warm up plan so you knew what we were going to do so we make the most of the warm up to work on the team organisation as we can’t do it at trainings due to the short attendance.
You got out 10 minutes late which result on having to skip the defensive line organisation planned.
It doesn’t make me happier than you to be on the pitch 1 hour before the game to do a proper warm up but if we want to progress, we have to do it and we have to take it seriously, but we didn’t today.
Everyone seemed not really bothered about it and it’s very annoying.
We are a good team and we have some great potential but we are not responsible enough in the way of how we approach our games.
It’s not because you put 43-00 against a team (Oakham) that it allows you to turn up and giving only 60% of yourself because you think it will be an easy game. There are no easy game guys and we need to grow up on that aspect. We can’t decide of how we will turn up depending on the team we play.
Every game is to be taken seriously and with the same drive that if you were playing your last game.

Today, once again, I don’t feel we played at 100% of our capacity. Our first tackles were poor. We didn’t want it as much as they did and as I said, today it cost us 5 points but again Ashby or a team of the same level, we go back home with 50 points in the suitcase.
Put it in your head boys, every tackle opportunity you have, you must want to stop the ball carrier for trying to get the ball closer to your try line. If you miss a tackle, then it is 15 vs 14 and it means that 1 of your mates will have to do what you were meant to do. Every time you can make a tackle, think that you do it for your mates, so they don’t have to do it. Target the legs and be efficient. Regardless the size of the ball carrier, if you go to the legs, he will go down.
When you are in a tackle position, it is a duel, a 1 vs 1 that you must want to win.
You can’t play rugby if you don’t want to be better than your opposite player.

Same as the defence, going into contact was good sometimes, average often and not efficient most of the time. We are still going into contact too high which makes it easier for the opposite team to defend. When you go into contact, it is to try to go over the advantage line so you can’t take the ball at 60% of your full speed and go soft. You have to get the ball at pace and do everything you can to beat the defender. Again, it is about being better than the enemy.

The handling was good despite the soapy ball. Some very nice passes and continuity but also too many passes in front of the defence.
I appreciate and like the fact that you want to carry on the continuity but the continuity is to be brought when you play inside the defence and not in front of it.
Don’t try the impossible pass. If you get tackled but want to keep the ball alive, then go on the floor and if you find a support, make the pop from the floor. If it’s not possible, then keep the ball and recycle through a ruck.

In terms of rucking, we managed to turn a few balls over (most of them were probably illegal but hey, that’s fair enough.  )
On our balls, when they were not cheating on the floor, we managed to secure our balls but we are still too soft on those phases.
If you are annoyed by a player who tries to get the ball illegally, make sure you clear him out within the rugby laws but using the correct intensity to make sure he won’t want to come back in there for the next 3 years. A ruck is not about securing the ball; it is also about making sure that the scrum half can play the ball in the best conditions possible.

Our scrums were mainly dominant apart from 1 or 2. Again, that’s something we could work on if we had enough people at trainings. There is so much room for improvement.
The lineouts were very good and keep on getting better week after week.
If we had enough people at training, we could work on the mauls a bit more as that could be a real plus to add to our panel.

We have so much more to look forward to guys. We can enjoy our Saturdays even more than we already do but it starts with getting a good attendance at trainings.
We haven't won anything yet.

HZB!