Tackles win games.

This week’s very indifferent performance was as perplexing as it was disappointing. We woke to a beautiful sunny morning and the fantastic playing surface of the Clifton 1st XV pitch beckoned. With a solid performance behind us from the previous week it was time to iron out the imperfections and improve against a tough but certainly beatable opposition – or so we thought.

Sadly, a very apparent and lacklustre aura surrounded the Clevedon warm-up. The boys who were eagle eyed, twitchy and visibly excited just seven days previous looked and acted like they’d been dragged along to a steam train convention!!!! (apologies to all you railway buffs – but you get my point) They plodded through the pre match routine with all the finesse of a fat slug. Half shut eye’s, sloped shoulders, weary dragging knuckles, silvery trail of mucus!.…………was there a party I wasn’t invited to?

The coaches tried every method under the sun to inject some life into our flatlining troops – Aggressive, enthusiastic, player centred, empowerment……… nothing seemed to be working. In the old days we’d have been allowed to resort to physical violence to evoke a reaction, but unfortunately as much as I felt like it I suspect even this fondly remembered tactic would have fallen short for the Blue and Gold clad zombies!

Therefore, we took to the paddock in the hope the game itself would spark some life into us. As it happens the early exchanges were fairly even albeit strewn with poor decision making and handling errors, from both sides, but all things considered not a bad effort. However, as time moved on Clifton were allowed to grow into the game. Our scrum seemed to be happy not to push and the opposition adjusted quickly to the uncontested lineout which proved to be inconsistent and haphazard both in its execution and policing. With no set piece and starved of possession Clevedon spent long periods defending the strong Clifton runners who were visibly enjoying their gifted freedom and grew in confidence. On the occasion Clevedon did snaffle some possession we seemed hell bent on either kicking it away or watching one man go into contact and stand back allowing an easy turnover or penalty. About halfway through the first half Clifton broke the deadlock with their first try in the corner after 5 missed tackles. The rest of the half saw much of the same and on the stroke of half time another set of unwilling tacklers gifted Clifton a touchdown under the sticks. 12-0

We’d come back against Cleve at 21-0 down the previous week and so the half time chat was full of honesty and enthusiasm in an attempt to get the lads going. The major talking point was missed tackles – we were going in far too high and allowing Clifton acres of space. The pack had to wake-up, wise-up and actually start competing. And finally when in possession – look after it. Half time chat done…….time to start showing what we’re made of.

We must have delivered the “pep” talk in Cantonese as from the restart the Clevedon boys quickly rolled out the red carpet and ushered the Clifton boys through for another try with a sprinkling of Clevedon shirts kindly jumping out of the way, going high and being surprised they get bounced off, and worst of all doing their very best impersonation of a frightened Under 8 - running alongside with outstretched arms in a desperate “Oscar winning” attempt to look like they really made the effort. This now set the tone for the day. Clevedon looked as uninterested as they had when they’d turned up that morning and as a consequence let in another couple of tries to end the day 29-0.

I always, always, impress on the boys it’s the performance that matters – and I 100% subscribe to that. I genuinely couldn’t give a monkeys what the final score is. So for me, the other coaches, and I suspect the travelling support, it was just so gutting to see such a distinct lack of effort from 90% of the team. Especially since last week we tackled heroically, were quick to the breakdown, positive, energetic, loud and aggressive. The fact we did all these things a few day previous proves to me the men on that pitch on Sunday made a choice……..a choice not to tackle, a choice not to help at breakdowns, a choice to hide, a choice to be an anonymous passive passenger. It’s just not acceptable in my eyes to pull on a Clevedon jersey and act in this manner. I find it disrespectful to the badge and to all the people involved to make the game happen, including the opposition who deserved a harder test. Anyway enough ranting, it’s only a game and I very much appreciate everyone is entitled to a bad day at the office – my “beef” is that effort requires zero talent and is a choice of the individual. Please learn from Sundays lack of commitment and make a better choice next time.

To put it into context, it’s been over a year and a half since we failed to score. We didn’t look like scoring and we didn’t deserve to score. Sunday was hopefully a massive wake-up for all the players and hopefully we can look forward to putting it behind us very quickly and making a massive statement next week. I do enjoy a grumble (perhaps a little too much) but there actually were some positives to this weekend’s game!!!! The return of David Hervey after a season and a half’s absence was quite astonishing. It was genuinely wonderful to have him back and he performed exceptionally making at least a third of the entire teams tackle count – I’m really looking forward to his development over the coming weeks, and he deservedly took Man Of The Match. McCauly was the other performance of note, constantly in the thick of it. If it wasn’t for these two players we would have lost at least 50-0. Various other players had their moments but these were too infrequent and from too few to make this game anywhere near competitive.

Anyway, as always I’ve probably been overly harsh. It’s all a learning curve, and we’ll go away to Corsham this Sunday with the slate wiped clean and hopefully a bit more zest in the tank. I always bang on about it but hopefully it’s now plainly obvious – TACKLES WIN GAMES!