Gentlemen,
Not a fun day at the office this weekend. We basically were outplayed by a hungrier team. We seemed to hang back and wait for them all day. Consequently we stayed on the back foot all day. There were maybe a handful of instances where we started to string something together.

Some pointers:
PLAY THE CONDITIONS:
We have to take into consideration the conditions of the day in how we plan to play the game. With that wind we needed to hoof the ball down the field when we had the wind to put them under pressure and play it close with short passes into the wind.

TACKLE:
The tackling was woeful Saturday. We waited for them to run at us and then we tackled up around the shoulders and got brushed off. We made some of there players look like superstars by letting them run through 6 tackles more than once. We have to set for the tackle. We all kept our body position high going into the tackle. We also need to come up and meet them in a line. Communicate with the guys either side of you on who you have so we don't have 2 people going for the same player and then leave one unmarked. Communication on defence is essential.

FORWARDS SETTING THE BALL:
Saturday was a perfect example of ball carriers going too far and getting isolated, then panicking and trying to get the ball back to support with a lob pass which no one is expecting. Our problems with rucking Saturday was that we were all setting the ball differently and then we weren't looking when we would drive over and we would kick the ball to the opposition. 1 yard with the ball coming back perfectly is better than 10 yards with it flying back messy.

COMMUNICATION:
This is a bit of an achilles heel for us. We have got to be better at communicating between each other and also between the Pack and the backs. Too many times backs were left isolated with the pack nit there because they didn't know where the ball was ending up. The ball carrier needs to be screaming for support or a rip or a drive, and support players need to be screaming to the ball carrier on where they are, and what they are going to do. On defense it is essential that we communicate between ourselves on what we are going to do and who we have.

PASSION:
We have got to play the game with passion. The hunger for winning the ball and making sure no bastard gets by me is essential to play the game. Asheville were hungrier Saturday.
We have a very important practice tonight and Thursday. We definitely have some fine tuning to do before this weekends game. Let's see everyone out there tonight and let's correct our mistakes from this weekend. That game is behind us and we focus on this weekend now. However, lets not forget the sting of defeat and lets train and play to the level we expect from ourselves.

Dan Roberts
Coach Greenville RFC


Greenville Grffins Rugby Club