Coaches report

Cold weather, hot rugby

Good to see you all this morning and it was pleasant to have an away game that actually felt like a home one – for me at least!

Chilly morning, but some rugby to warm the cockles. I think we lost one game out of the 7 we played, so a great squad performance.

From what I understand from a quick post match debrief from Jonathan and the 2 Steves, the performances from their squads was impressive. Great collective effort and also organisation. It was nice to hear that they were successful in putting into practice some of the rucking and passing work that we did at training last Sunday.

The difference between the other two teams can be put into one word - TACKLING. It was a shame that despite all their endeavour with ball in hand, my team were always behind as there were too many first up tackles missed. I explained to the guys after the first game that it should be a given now that they make these tackles rather than leaving it to someone else. Clearly individuals won’t be picked out, but I think barring a couple of exceptions, the team they know they could have done much better on this front. Unfortunately when it happens more than once, it can become a bit infectious, and heads can drop leaving further gaps. I’ll just put it down to an off day as all these guys have proved themselves capable of doing it more often than not.

It was really great to finish the morning off with a really strong performance from Russell’s team. Led by Manish and Alex, they were aggressive in the tackle, defended as a team on the back foot of the ruck and when they had ball in hand, they worked the two-on-ones and scored some really well taken tries. The passing hasn’t always been a strength this year but this team really showed how to do it. Excellent stuff guys!

Back to training next Sunday, so fingers crossed that the rain stays away from Bramley Road.