Sticklers For Tradition

The warm cheery sunny Sunday mornings have been snatched from us and replaced in alarmingly quick time with their cold autumnal cousins. However at least is was dry, and with the lovely surface provided by our hosts, the game plan of “keep the ball alive” was perfectly set up.

From a coaching point of view this performance was going to be a tough one to predict for a number of reasons. We’d had a week off following the drubbing kindly received by Bath, as well as training being rained off for a fortnight, and on top of this a growing unavailability list of no less than 7!!!! - 5 of which are mainstay forwards!!! Because of this, a huge reshuffle of personnel was forced upon the lads and a very different, albeit exciting, Clevedon line-up took to the field. With a few backs taking on the challenge of doing a job in the pack, a couple of new faces making their debuts and a welcome return after a long layoff courtesy of a broken collar bone injury for Rich – It really was quite a mish mash of a team sheet, and a predictably unpredictable hour rugby was hotly anticipated.

It is fast becoming tradition that we like to give our opponents a try head start usually around the two-minute mark, and this Sunday was to be no exception! Bang on two minutes Weston’s classy No. 8 bullocked over with impressive power, shrugging off a number a flappy high tackle “attempts” in the process. Seemingly angered by this Clevedon hit back from the restart immediately with a blonde crested bullock of their own embarking on a rampage down the left flank and a perfectly timed pass to the flying Mr Spriggs to cross in the corner. This was followed up less than a couple of minutes play later when Mac exploited the left flank again barging through for his first of the day. Shell-shocked from the quick recovery Weston got their game together, and a seemingly simple to deal with, pick up from the back of a scrum reaped reward with another converted try for Westons No.8. At least 5 Clevedon players flapped, jumped out of the way, and (I’m seriously getting sick of this) went in too high.

14-10. 24 points scored in less than 9 minutes is quite a feat ………….whilst it was certainly entertaining, unfortunately both sides need to appreciate this was due to some incredibly poor tackle technique and commitment rather than any Kiwi-esque attacking brilliance. I’ve said it a number of times “tackles win games”, maybe I need to be a little clearer……… good, low, timed, committed tackles win games. Not our all too familiar performance of grabbing at shoulders and shirts at arm’s length and prancing around like you’re in the Bolshoi ballet!!!!!!! It has to stop boys. If you are the first man, you have to tackle low – it’s becoming seriously unacceptable.

Despite the free scoring start to the game, surprisingly the rest of the half passed without further addition from either side. Clevedon enjoyed the vast majority of the possession but with absolutely no regard for the pre-match opinion of “keep the ball alive”, they were individuals with the ball tucked under one arm running in to as many Weston players as they could find and inevitably loosing possession through knock-on’s, being held up or stripped at the breakdown due to lack of support. Whilst some inventive kicking was good to see, it was largely unproductive giving unnecessary possession away when some simple hands were waiting and may have been a better option.

And so, the half time score stayed with Clevedon two points adrift of their hosts and a fair reflection on the first halves play. After a quick Q&A session it was confirmed we’d been playing like individual headless chickens and it was promised that the pre-match tactic of letting the ball do the work and avoiding contact would now at least be tried.

The next 25 minutes were pretty close to as good as I’ve ever seen us attack. Our effort was the same, our commitment was the same ……..the difference - we just used our brains and passed at the right time to intelligent support – we can call this “The Winscombe Effect”!!!! :) Instead of running full pelt into a pack of Weston players we moved the ball away from them, trusting the man in a better position. I can honestly say it really was a joy to watch at times. The result, was six unanswered tries……….surely that speaks for itself. A small global difference in attitude made a huge difference in play. Of course, it would have been rather nice if the lads had worked this out for themselves during the first halves play, but at least they embraced it once reminded and further to that continued to play this way right up to the final whistle rather than getting greedy “white line fever”, which we’ve definitely been guilty of in the past.

Second half tries were claimed by Mac x 2, Rich, Dan, Willsy and Rudsta.

And so a game that looked very finely balanced at half time and genuinely could have gone either way, was tipped heavily in Clevedons favour courtesy of an intelligent “buy in” to tactics and a handful of top class performances, most notably however from Luke and Mac. Luke worked tirelessly at the breakdown, at one point finding himself in the middle of at least 6 Weston players and somehow still wriggling free to present the ball!!! He was almost always 1st or 2nd to the breakdowns and his superb technique often secured ball retention, frequently all by himself! In addition, he also popped up on numerous occasions in the midfield and passed the ball on seamlessly when required. Front row players are all heroes in my book, but front row players that contribute massively outside of the set are priceless – well done Luke.

Sometimes, when he’s in the right mood, Mac is virtually unplayable – and this was one of those days. Of the eight tries he had a hand in 6 of them – scoring 3, final assisting pass for 2 and creating a massive dummy line taking the defence with him to allow free passage for Rich to dab down the other, not forgetting his “crossbar challenge” from a touchline conversion! His defence, an area we need work on, was certainly more disciplined than I’ve ever seen and his kicking was intelligent if not productive every time. The difference this week seemed to be that he played “with” the team rather than alongside them, it’s difficult to explain but I think and desperately hope we may have seen a massive step up in maturity from our flamboyant talisman, and with some tough games ahead it will be very interesting to see if I’m right.

Great second half, hopefully the penny has dropped?.............Keep it alive – It’s fun to play and brilliant to watch.

Finally, a quick thanks to Weston who never gave up and their referee who was excellent and stepped in at the last minute.

And so back to The Vale next Sunday for a proper tough test when we welcome the mighty Southmead to the coast. Please be warned, if we tackle high against these guys, it will not be a pretty outcome.