On The Fence About Defence.

Unlike the previous Sunday, Swiss Valley was bathed in gorgeous winter sunshine, welcoming North Bristol for the very first time to our corner of the rugby globe. Having missed out on a hotly anticipated game against Southmead the previous weekend courtesy of a last-minute cancellation by Jack Frost, would the boys be rusty or raring to go? The warm up consisted of the usual ball juggling fails, complete lack of focus and Saturday night gossip catch-up. And having only played these guys once previous a couple of years ago, there was very little to gauge what sort of day we were in for.

As it happened it was one of those mornings that would make the attacking coach reach for a bottle of Sunday afternoon vino and the defensive coach……………… reach for a bottle of Sunday afternoon vino (however each would be for very different reasons – if they weren’t the same bloke)!!!!! 96 points in 50 minutes of rugby is obviously a joy to watch and must have been exciting to play in. But unfortunately, I think it’s more indicative of both team’s complete lack of defensive commitment rather than anything else. Clevedon eventually took the lion’s share of the haul with a dozen tries and at times provided some really fantastic running rugby, but when North eventually got their hands on the ball they showed they are no mugs and ran through an embarrassing amount of tackling “attempts/acting” scoring four converted tries themselves.

To be honest it’s difficult to add any further comment to such a frantic busy game!!!!!! Mac was as prolific as he was mercenary, adding 5 scores and a handful of conversions to his bulging seasonal haul. Further tries were clinched by Willsy, Rudsta, Rich, David, Ty Munn and a brace for Chaz !!!!! North Bristol were rightly disappointed with the scoreboard but hats off to them never gave up and were well worth their 4 well taken scores. Thanks, must also go to the referee from North Bristol who helped us out and was thankfully young enough to keep up with play.

And so our attacking intelligence seems to be progressing at a very pleasing rate but with our defensive integrity sneaking out of the back door at a similar speed it’s difficult to be too happy with things. In the last 6 games, we have managed to leak 26 tries at an alarming average of more than 4 per game! In contrast, the first 6 games of the year (against far tougher opposition) we let through 16 tries – 5 of these against one team…………somewhere along the line we’ve stopped tackling. Not sure why but we have. We need to re-address this balance and it starts this Friday night with our “Box Office” encounter against the mighty Broad Plain. Our friends the “Plainers” are enjoying a fantastic season and are overdue a result against us, if we don’t buck our ideas up quickly and start tackling with some structure and discipline it’ll be a very happy Christmas in South Brizzle.