Gentlemen,
A heartbreaker of a loss this past weekend. However, a greatly improved performance on the previous weekend. It was an all round improved performance by the team. We started from the kickoff strong. We camped inside Old White's half for an extended period putting them under pressure in their scrums and also with our up in their face defence. We were rewarde with a penalty for them holding onto the ball on the ground and Mulli slotted the penalty 3-0. We received the kickof (These were much better) and slowly marched down the field stringing together numerous facets of play. From a scrum ball was passed to Darren who floated a deftly struck kick for Seman to catch on the wing, Seman then ran around 1 player drew in the fullback and passed to TJ in Support on the inside for quite possibly one of the sweetest tries I have seen Grenville score. Mulli sloted the penalty 10-0. This was an excellent example of playing selflessly and passing to a support player who will definitely score rather than going too far ourselves. We then went to sleep a bit and let Old White march into our half and from 10 yds out we let their flyhalf score in the corner through some sloppy tackling out on the wing. Communication is key on defence and we seemed to fall asleep a bit then. We kicked off, kept Old White under pressure through some excellent rucking and were rewarded with another penalty by Mulli, 13-5. After some more repeated pressure on their line, we should have spun it wide a number of times rather than picking and going ourselves, we were rewarded with a penalty, a quick tap by myself and I barreled over next to the goalposts for a try. Conversion was successful, 20-5. Halftime came. Halftime can be a bitch as far as breaking momentum. That is exactly what it did for us. It gave Old White time to regroup and fine tune some things. We started the 2nd half very sluggishly and let Old White stay in our half. We managed to repulse them and we were attacking in their half when an errant pass went to ground from a scrum which they kicked down the field, we failed to kick the ball into touch and allowed their #6 to score in the corner. 20-12. Unfortunately we lost a player to the sin bin on a pretty harsh call and we were down a pack player for 10 minutes. From the ensuing penalty Old White kicked for a lineout close to our line. They ran a short lineout and peeled to the front and scored in the corner. We have got to be awake on those and some watching rather than tackling let them in at the corner. 20-17. We marched down the field and were rewarded with a penalty converted by Mulli. 23-17. Old White managed to find some space out wide and again dotted down in the corner making it 23-22 needing the sideline conversion to take the lead. They made it 24-23. Just before fulltime they slotted a drop goal making it 27-23 which it was till the final whistle.

Overall all a good display and much more like the way we want to play some pointers:

RUCKING: A much improved performance by the pack in this area. we still need to work on cleaning out opposition hands a bit. But when we hit the rucks we made them move.

SCRUMS: An excellent performance here. even with one man down we still managed to wheel them. However, we lost 1 ball to a tight head and 1 to a wheeled scrum.

LINEOUTS: An area of concern last year and much improved this year. We just need to work a bit on defending the short lineout. Good job though.

BACKLINE ATTACK: Backline played well as a unit all day. We strung together some excellent moves and there were very few instances of dropped ball. However, we do need to work on communication a bit.

BACKLINE DEFENCE: When the ball was in close we were excellent. However, gaps started to open up as soon as they spun it wide. This is a concern. We need to work on our defence out wide. They seemed to have the overlap whenever they spun it wide and we were lucky that they dropped it a couple of times when it got out there.

BALL ON THE GROUND: Unfortunately this is an area of concern. We have got to commit our bodies to the ball on the ground. There were a number of instances when players just watched the ball on the ground letting the opposition come through and pounce on it. If it's near you put your body on it and secure it. NO EXCUSES.

Overall a god performance. however we played the game for 60 minutes and let Old White score in the other 20 minutes. We have to play the game with intensity for the full 80 minutes. Mental mistakes lead to scores by the other team. And that is why we lost Saturday's game. We need to stay tuned in for the full 80 minutes. We are not game fit yet.

We now look toward this weekend's game against Atlanta Renegades B. It is our first Matrix game and one we have to win. If we keep the intensity we displayed for 3/4 of this past weekends game and correct some of our mistakes it'll be a good day at the office.

See everyone out there tomorrow night ready to go at 7:00pm.

Good job this weekend. Great win by the B-side 10-7 over Old White. Good job in leading the team Brecka.

Dan Roberts
Coach Greenville RFC


Greenville Grffins Rugby Club