Gentlemen,

It was great to get back on the win column again. This was a well deserved win against a gritty side. The start of the game wasn't the best as we had to wait 40 minutes for the referee to show up. But the wait was worthwhile as the referee did a really good job of playing a balanced fair game. We were a little slow starting the game. We set some rucks but were blown off them by a swarming Asheville Forward pack. They stole some early possession and managed to disrupt any kind of attack we had. However, the pack finally started to hit the rucks with some menace and we actually started to get some phases together. The first try was set up by stolen ball at an Asheville lineout which we spun out to Tex. Tex chipped through and that new guy Gimp managed to beat the defenders to dot it down. Try converted 7-0. WE then went to sleep somewhat. Asheville pressured our line for what had to be 10 solid minutes. we defended excellently. We would win the ball make and then make an elemental mistake to hand the ball back to Asheville. Finally Asheville hoisted an up and under into the try zone and we all just watched it and an Asheville player was the only one around when it dropped. Try converted 7-7. From the ensuing kickoff we came out strong. Andy Merriman gathered the kick and charged down field. However some loose ball at the next ruck was flyhacked down the field to inside our 22. We worked down the field and from the next scrum the ball was swung outwide to Brett who was held in the tackle, but he managed to pop the ball to myself in support to score close to the coner. Try unconverted 12-7. That was the score going into the half.

The 2nd half we came out stronger. We started to maul better from the lineouts and we were able to run the ball more form setpieces and rucks. We pressured fro most of the half and came away with two well taken forward tries from Jim Cerqua and Philip Fuller. 1 converted 1 not. Final score 24-7. There were a number of other tries we should have gotten but we suffered from that age-old problem of "Maybe I can get there myself". I know I killed a dead cert try to Mike May by not passing. So the score should have been higher if we had played somewhat smarter in certain situations. We should let the ball do the work sometimes rather than try and do it all ourselves. but an excellently taken and well deserved win.

A couple of pointers from the game:

Our setpieces especially our lineouts were excellent. They gave us a good platform to work from. Scrums need a little work.

Our rucking was very sloppy at the start but got better as the game wore on. We targeted the center and forgot to clean out the fringes sometimes which allowed them to come through and poach some ball.

Our defence was excellent. Our first up tackling was spot on.

Our ball handling was excellent. However we need to be aware of support around us and be able to offload the ball to support players who could score.

Our ball retention was excellent. we managed to keep the ball for multiple phases.

So Gentlemen we have an excellent base to work from now as we prepare for this weekends game against Charleston. This game will be a lot harder and we need to good practices to get ready for it.

Congratulations on a job well done.

Dan Roberts
Coach Greenville RFC


Greenville Grffins Rugby Club