Back to the "nest"

This week the travelling faithful only had to endure a short hop down the road to neighbouring Weston for our fourth straight away game of the season.

Hornets have been off our radar for a couple of years and therefore represented a bit of an unfamiliar challenge. They are having a fantastic new artificial surface installed (which we will look forward to playing on in the future) at their clubhouse so a short trek across the fields was in order with a very acceptable pitch on our arrival. A little bit of wet stuff and a pretty hefty cross field breeze gave the boys slightly different conditions to those that have been enjoyed of late and something to think about. Both sides had a number of players unavailable and with Clevedon only able to field a bare 15 lots of game time and bit of experimental positioning made for an exciting prospect. Despite the notable absences it was great to welcome back front row stalwart Luke which meant we could actually start with a recognised front row for the first time this month – and we could look forward to his much needed contribution at the breakdown.

For a change we started strongly and enjoyed the early possession and territory but Hornets were equal to it with some excellent cover tackling. However, after only five minutes Clevedon got their early pressure reward from a quick tap penalty from Big Mac 10 meters out – the seas parted and he was given free passage to dab down pretty much unopposed for his first score of the day. Hornets regrouped and upped their efforts from the restart, with some excellent ball retention and surging runs Clevedon did really well defending the “pick & go” keeping the threat at bay. Despite Hornets new found energy it was their familiar foe Macenzzie who struck again for the blue and gold, converting his own try.

Now with a bit of breathing space on the scoreboard Clevedon started to move the ball around a bit which was great to see, however, all too often play broke down due to poor execution of simple passes. Despite this some good all round work saw McCauly gain possession on the halfway line and as in the previous week, shrugged aside a couple of valid tackle attempts to finish in style in the corner. What was so pleasing about this was he had two men in support (Jamie and Tyler) the whole way, just in case the unthinkable was to happen!

Hornets upped their game once more and a very even contest saw us through to half time.

The halftime chat revolved around making things a little easier for ourselves. Stop overcomplicating play, let the hands do the work, and be a little more sympathetic to the receiver in the blustery conditions. A real sign of the times is the apparent new found skill of listening to the coaches and to actually give our insightful guidance a go!!!!!

The early second half exchanges were pretty equal and at times the Clevedon boys defended admirably sometimes deep in their own 22 to keep the Hornets at bay. But it was some quality multi-phase recycling and excellent handling by the blue and gold saw another try on the 35min mark touched down by the unlikely but resurgent Banksy. As the game wore on Clevedon passed with an admirable unselfishness and confidence making life very difficult for the Home players, and when a 14 stone beast pops up on the wing to finish off his hatrick you could forgive them for throwing in the towel. But credit to Hornets they never ever gave up or turned on one another – and only some further excellent defence by the Clevedon lads kept the home side of the scoreboard at zero.

The last play of the day was straight off the training paddock with a number of quickly recycled breakdowns and some brilliant footwork, space manipulation and passing. Fittingly our makeshift number 10 McCauly finished the move off under the posts for mac to convert and round off a good mornings effort by everyone involved.

Tom Wills stood in as captain and steered the ship very well indeed, keeping the tempo up and staying positive throughout (something he’s struggled with in the past) he was the gel, the brains, the conductor and deserved his MOTM. Our other Hero of the day was Josh who’s been threatening for 7 years to turn up and put in a performance like that!!! Tackling, surging bursts and intelligent chat, he took his chance in the second row very well and hopefully this is just the start of what he’s capable of. Without doubt there were other notable performances, M&M (Mac n’ McCauly) were unplayable, Scotty was engaged and rampant, Jamie is making tackles, Rudy was ever-present…….I could go on and on. It was just one of those all too few days where the attitude was good, everyone put in the effort and enjoyed a good solid mornings rugby. We’ve had a really tough start to the season and the boys deserved a less intense Sunday morning. The good thing was “less intense” didn’t mean less effort. Well done everyone and big thanks to Hornets who were far better than the score line suggests and fought to the end.