: Fri Jul 10, 2009 11:48 am
Didn't Andy G say he'd be up for reffing again?
Lads, just a couple of comments from last monday to take forward to next week and beyond.
We did OK Monday - A few heads were down at full time and the match definitely got away from us in the last quarter. Maybe people felt it was a game we could have won. I guess at 11 - 10 down at half time it was still anyone's game.... but still, they were as good a team as we'll encounter. No weak links and skill and pace to spare, combined with good cohesion and understanding through the team and perhaps better drilled to the match scenario. All said though, we acquited ourselves well and although a bit one dimensional at times, played with a lot of heart and did score some good tries and put some good moves together in the end. And it was great to see lots of chat and an extra bit of zip that was absent against York.
The big frustration I think we all felt was that we still didn't play as well as we do on a normal Monday. It was almost like we tried a bit too hard and it got a bit ragged and we lost a bit of shape. People so keen to get their hands on the ball that we were clustered around the ruck area, badly aligned and with not much depth.
With a view to progressing as a team I'd like to propose a couple of basic things to work on this Monday in attack and defence that everyone should try and work on:
::ATTACK::
> Everyone around the play of the ball to take responsibility for making themself available as runners. If you are one man to the left or one to the right of 1st receiver, the onus is on you to make yourself an option - come from depth and shout for the ball, so 1st receiver - whoever it is - has the option to go himself or pass left or right.
> Where one of our nominated playmakers is at 1st receiver the onus is on them to call a move: 1/2/3 drops offs, a call to put a player into a gap in the opposition defence etc. This is the case when any of Gareth, Gregor or Mark are at first receiver. I guess one or two other players might call the odd move too.
We can work on getting more people doing this over time but for now lets focus on getting the key playmakers calling some shots and giving everyone else options. The aim is to mix it up a bit more and change the angle of attack to find those gaps in the defence.
::DEFENCE::
> The main area where we were leaking tries is down the middle. If you are marker don't scoot - you are primarily responsible for covering the inside ball. If you are one man either side of marker don't just follow the ball - be conscious to mark the space / defensive channel. if you drift too far with the ball carrier you'll leave a gaping hole that'll be too big for the marker to cover. If you stick with this and they do work their way across the pitch they might end up with a man or two over but they'll have no space left to work in!
> We need to talk more. If we're not stacked up right defensively, call men over.
...that's it. probably a bit wordy but what I'm suggesting is pretty basic that everyone should be able to get a handle on and could make quite a difference I hope.
Do people agree / disagree?
Pete?????????? Bob????????????????????????
