We took the bus to the ground Friday night, that was an experience. Not sure I could join that queue for the return bus ride!
It may sound like I am just playing with words but I feel
that there is a difference and I had to watch the highlights then the full game
again in order to answer this, seemingly simple question.
At the start of the game we all had the memory of beating
Saints last season and to a man, each person I asked at the ground, thought we
would be able to beat them again.
Especially after the news that Coops and Heem were back in the team.
Saints arrived having won only 3 games in the league so far,
so I guess this justified the general view that this was a game we should win.
Phil Downson, our captain for the night, not theirs; was
pumped and ready for the match. I don’t
want to get side tracked but: Where is Captain GJ?
Greg MacDonald was clearly only in charge of his 4th
premiership game. I hope in future he
remembers to actually signal the intent of his whistle blowing and not leave
players and fans alike guessing all game.
We started competitively and Callum Clark gave us the first opportunity
for points, Shilly obliged.
Just after Potgieter went off the Saints had their first
sight of our try line but due to a bit of professional fouling shall we say,
they ended up with 3 points instead.
At 3-3 following 10 minutes of balanced play I would happily
say we were looking good for the win.
The Hammond try, came from lots of great phase play by the
Warriors pack. The break by Wynand, started
by Shilly was well finished. I am still
not sure why the linesman had to question the Kirwan clear out but I guess that
is what the TMO is for.
12 minutes in, we were 10-3 up and Saints lost their
captain. It was looking great for the
win.
For the first 15 minutes I could not fault the play by
Arr. Quick in and out of the break down
and his boxing kicking finding the targets.
DOC – looked from the North Stand to be a man that had gone
mad. TV replay shows otherwise but he
did spend the 2nd quarter of the game trying to get a yellow card. I think his contribution to the team and in
each match is amazing, just wish he could control himself a bit more off the
ball. It feels like every contact he
goes into is a potential yellow card moment.
Clark was very lucky that the referee was not able to see
things right in front of his face. A
knock on by us in their 22 happened at the same time he cleared Annett without
the ball [away from the play] and then tried to poke Arr in the eye. I guess a leopard never can change it’s
spots!
Watching the full match on TV does give a different
perspective on the referee. I did see
even more things that he missed, but I was also impressed at how vocal he was
with the players. Very calm, very clear
and very much in control. I just wish he
would let fans know what he is doing.
10-9 at half time really did not reflect either the effort
from our guys or the quality of play. At
this point we were already 1 try to nil up and controlling a lot of the action.
Ryan Mills “team” yellow card was justified. We had clearly been warned all through the 1st
half, though I am still not 100% sure what he was judged to have done
illegally?
The next phase of the second half was not pretty for
Warriors. Saints took their first lead
of the night and we were struggling with 14 men, allowing Myler to score 9
unanswered points.
We are finally getting some depth of talent back and the
substitutions did not lead to a sudden switch in performance or
possession. Obviously being able to bring
Heem into the game is a massive advantage.
Another player worth a mention is “Little” Kitch. He got almost 30 minutes on the pitch, in a
Premiership match and he played really well.
The 20 year old is 6’8” and maybe needs to bulk a little, but he is definitely
in the mould of his brother. Hopefully
we can keep hold of this Kitchener to see him grow into his potential.
The next score for us was in the 78th minute. Pennell setting up Heem – what a return to
play.
Callum Clark, to quote My wife “why is he back, he obviously
has anger issues?” then got a yellow card for throwing Jonny Arr across the
pitch, which led to a penalty being award, from the half way line as the final
action of the game…
Shillcock’s face and body language said what every Warriors
fan was thinking… SO CLOSE!
It has taken us until November to lose a game at home in the
league. Has that ever happened before?
So, to my question – Were we
beaten or did we lose? I think we lost
that one. We could have and should have
won the match. I cannot say that the
referee impacted our result. We gave him
too many opportunities to give them penalties.
Especially when within kicking range.
We outscored them 2 tries to nil
and lost.
We spent 10 minutes with a man in
the bin and lost by just 1 point.
Statistically we beat Saints all
over the place:
Metres gained, Clean breaks,
Defenders beaten, Gain line carries – all better than them. The only things they did better than us was
offloads and penalty points kicked.
We managed 98% tackle success
110/112 no wonder they could not score a try! I know a lot are wondering why Simon Cross is
still in charge of defence but I think that kind of statistic and nilling
Saints on the try count shows why.
We played well for large chunks of
the game and gave away the result through giving away too many kickable
penalties. We lost the game, Saints did
not beat us.
If we can keep the team fit then
we can start looking up the table.
I must admit I was banking on
Wasps beating Gloucester with the vein hope that we could overtake them in the
coming weeks, but they didn’t so we probably won’t.
The loss against Saints does halt
our stuttering season somewhat but we are 7 points ahead of relegation and only
4 points from 10th. Between
us and 6th is starting to grow, the gap is now 9 points.
Exeter are beatable but we then face Wasps
before our trip to Bristol. Bristol have
Tigers and Gloucester before our boxing day match so I can see us going into
that game still 7 points in front of them, with a fit team (other than
Hougaard) and with a massive point to prove.
Falcons have some tough games on the road – do I predict we will jump up
to 10th before the year is out?
Why not? I say we will face
Harlequins on New Years Day in 10th looking up to Gloucester and
maybe even with an eye on Quins spot in the table.
Oh and as you will have seen in My picture with Aidan on the bus, I am half way through Movember - if you are feeling charitable then all help is appreciated: http://mobro.co/phillmason
#coyw
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