Welcome Home

Our first home game (at the club) saw us welcome Chew Valley RFC. Chew are a great team with a good ball playing style but have been challenged in recent years with a number of quality players leaving. I very much appreciate first-hand how much of a difficult task player retention and recruitment can be. Very much like ourselves Chew only have one major source of new players and talent in the form of the local Comprehensive School. Fortunately, we have been lucky to have recruited some excellent new players to replace those that have left and in turn have just about been able to field a full side usually with a replacement or two on a weekly basis which in all honesty (from a coaches point of view) is perfect. Whilst it can be a bit pretty exhausting rounding up a mob each and every week with a deluge of frantic texting up to and usually including Sunday morning! It does at least mean everyone who makes an appearance gets maximum game time which is the most important thing to me.

On this occasion both sides had the bare 15.

Massive thanks to the Chew coach Andrew, who readily agreed to do the honours in the middle for which we are very grateful during my period of incapacity. I asked him to be particularly vigilant on our offside as it is something we have been working on, to our credit I don’t think we got penalised once ……… or should I say – we didn’t get caught once !!!!!

The game itself was a fairly scrappy affair but Clevedon stamped their authority early on with tries coming thick and fast thereafter. Chew were unfortunate to lose one of their best players through concussion and Clevedon matched the 14 a side format. This gave me the opportunity to swap players in and out of a variety of positions creating a chaotic environment for the lads to sort out themselves – to their credit I thought they coped pretty well with the constant upheaval. Huge credit must also go to Chew who never gave up and were worth more than the couple of tries, one in each half. They showed great togetherness from which we could learn a thing or two. The major difference between the two teams was the tackling. Chew had a handful of very, very good tacklers but they were surrounded by a handful of others that were not so willing……………Sound familiar? The players that backed off, or went too high provided gaps from which the Clevedon attack took advantage running up our biggest score of the season so far.

Mac showed some very powerful running eventually managing a hatrick after fluffing one in amusing style – hopefully learning a valuable lesson in the process? Spriggsy unleashed “The Pace” and seized two well taken first half tries. Ty Scott grabbed one through excellent support. Dan added a couple of quick second half tries one after Harry was dragged down agonisingly short of the line and in doing so blowing a very lucrative deal with his father!!!!! Fittingly the final try of the day went to McCauly who as always was ever-present and at the heart of almost everything.

Player of the day went to Ewan for his all-round massively improved contribution. Tackling, good scrummage and a couple of strong carries as well – long may it continue. I’ve always said front row players are my absolute heroes. If they contribute in any small way outside of set piece, then they genuinely become “Super-Heroes”!!! Luke and Rudy are already very much in this bracket providing all manner of excellent contribution in the loose, if Ewan can start following in their “bear prints” then the first 3 names on the team sheet will be very easy to fill in for years to come.

Next week the heat gets turned up a bit as we visit Midsomer Norton RFC for the next round of the Bristol Combination Cup. They are a big aggressive side which will need to be tackled. Please learn lessons from the past and from Chew – if the whole team tackles you’ve always got a chance. As soon as one or two players shy away a good team will identify it and exploit it. So pack your tackle shoulders and let’s enjoy our foray into uncharted territory starting with a committed defence.