Skerries 12 - Stillorgan 25
J3 League - Nov 28, 2004
To be quiet honest I was more interested in watching this match than remembering who did what so forgive me if I get somethings wrong. I was living in the moment so the speak and would have loved to be playing.
It was a game of 2 halves in terms of concentration and discipline to the basics. It was a great win but hope some critical comments now, might stand to us in the future.
First Half
We were in fact very unlucky in the first half, the sun was in our eyes, we had a couple of decisions against us, we knocked on a couple of balls and
Wesley had to leave injured. But it is the sign of a good team when we
stuck at the basic tasks and never waivered for the first 40 minutes.
The pack were brillant, on reflection I remember more that one occasion were every individual either took a 9 ball 15 yards or covered across the pitch to support the backs. The recycling was great and Skerries weren't allowed to run in close. Some awesome tackling by our loose forwards Fabien, Colin and Bob. Some of the pack played the best rugby I have seen them play specifically Leo, Nigel and Richie. Wesley, Noel and John were no less energetic. By the way Wesleys finger was dislocated and he will be out for a while. The multiple recycling and strong running resulted in a try by Fabien. It was great to watch the simple discipline of the 9 ball over and over and Skerries just couldn't take the constant pressure.
The attitude of the backs was great, there was no way Skerries were going to be allowed run the ball. The Skerries try was completely against the run of play. Unfortunately we didn't get that much ball out wide. I'm sure the backs would like more ball but in the first half the pack was so effective and deserved the possession.
Some of the moves broke down in the middle of the field but I don't think we lost any possession due the support from the other backs and covering forwards. There were a couple of occasions I thought Bob was playing on the wing he was at the breakdown so fast, but the same can be said for Leo, Richie, Fabien, Colin, even Nigel. (Does It sound like I'm repeating myself). The 2 wingers, Gus and Ken, played very well, I think Gus got the try I was busy at the time.
Second Half
Skerries started the second half very strongly and we dropped our intensity
level. I guess this was a combination of feeling we were better than the
Skerries (and we where) and having put so much in the first half. We have
to watch this, many goods teams have been beaten this way.
Only the lads on the pitch really know if they switched off, but after being under pressure for along period we finally got into their 22 and on realising were we where raised our concentration. Immediately, and unfortunately only briefly, we looked like the team in the first half. A clean lineout resulted in a ball from Bull to a screaming Nigel coming from deep and at pace and after he steam rolled the outhalf there was no stopping him.
The rest of the half I think we lost our discipline in the pack, we didn't make the effort to get to rucks and come in from behind. Our scrum half wasn't protected and runners were hanging out in the back line more than really wanting the ball. We basically allowed the pressure to come on us by not putting it on them. We gave away lots of penalties when we were under this pressure. I hope I'm not being too critical. A small drop in intensity resulted in a big drop in performance. If it wasn't for Nigels try it would have been very different second half. Leo was the exception to this rule with some hard yards and the backs kept tackling which was a big positive. Bulls try was luckily the nail in the coffin for Skerries. Well done again there is a good spirit in this team, I think you can tell that yourselves. Unfortunately we picked up 3 injuries, Wesley, Colin and Stephen so the next 2 games will be difficult but I 'm sure we will rise to it.