Walking wounded Super 2s struggle through with almighty Cup Hangover

The performance really depends on the perspective of the team and where they want to be next season. If they want to be in Candy 2 next season, then it was a brave and courageous performance from a threadbare team with a number of new face who ably applied themselves on short notice. However, if our intention is push on to Candy 1 then the performance lacked the clinical finish which has won us games closer than this one, and a lack in continuity should not be an excuse for a patchy performance from such a set of skilful players.
With our erstwhile captain Ben Melrose unavailable, due to being on the chat show circuit following the previous week’s cup victory (the Super 2s have a large support base in Eastern Europe), the logistical responsibilities were passed down to the long suffering team manager. All was peaceful following a great training session on Thursday, and a strong side was locked in for the weekend. However, due to a number of unavoidable drop outs and call ups, the squad by Saturday morning had lost some of its strength and depth (excluding the back row). Obviously with the Thirds in their cup final, there was no possibility of bringing up reinforcements from below, and it was great to see them winning another piece of silverware for the club. A further logistical spanner was thrown in the works with some of the junior shirts being mixed in with the 2nds kit, resulting in a hilarious (Greg Humphreyson trying to but on medium sized Fly half shirt, that Sam Bird had to squeeze into) but unnecessary distraction. However, we were cheered up by James Bass’ (1st mention of the report) confession, after putting on the shirt usually worn by his better half (in all senses), that he borrowed her should pads because she had bigger shoulders than him. A brave confession some would say. Another piece of good news was that despite Melrose explicitly telling me that Rory Duncan made himself unavailable, he surprisingly showed up at the meet time.
The final twist in the plot was that our starting inside centre George Hazell was not coming due to the fact in was in Kenya with him girlfriend, presumably hunting Cecil the lion’s children. Obviously this was not one’s fault, just a breakdown in communication, however he seemed to distract the dishearten the lads before the warm up.
The warm itself was fair in its execution, however it lacked at urgently or confidence, as everyone seemed to be going through the motions. Greg Humphreyson, stand in captain for the game, made a good observation after the game, where he asked everyone if they had accepted that we were going to lose before kick-off, which seemed to be a fair question to ask, as not everyone appeared to be up for a challenge.
Prior to the game, I was concerned about a cup hangover which often occurs, and was mindful of that memory being tarnished by a poor performance the following week. Also with so many chances for cup silverware, the league was in danger of falling into insignificance, however promotion into Candy 1 should be a season objective and an achievable one at that.
My fears were in danger of being realised after 10 minutes when we had conceded two soft tries from driven line outs, Mike Cousins had reinjured his Achilles and Sam Bird took the knock to the head and was off. This resulted in the debut, in a slightly unorthodox position of inside centre, for Martin Fearon, who made an instant impact by making a strong carry and flattening two defenders.
We appeared to wake up at this point, and were helped further by the referee who sin binned Billingham’s Number 8 for a no arm tackle on Mike Cousins, there was no malice to it more of a defence mechanism from when something large is running into you. From that penalty we secured some good territory in Billingham’s 22. It was clear that Billingham defended very narrow with a blitz defence, and our back were wise to it, with Greg Humphreyson employing cross field kicks and chips, the first of which resulted in a comedy of errors, as unkind bounce forced the Billingham full back to attempt to hack the ball away, which was charged down by Ben Kelly. This left 2 Novo’s players a foot from the bouncing ball, 3 metres (of open space) from the try line. In fear that Greg may have been offside when the ball was blocked, Ben Kelly took it upon himself to pick it up, however another unkind bounce resulted in him knocking it on. I could be cruel to Ben and blame him, as the pitch, which was firm in most places, had some soft places which randomised the bounce.
A couple of minutes later however, another deeper Crossfield kick resulted in unkind bounce in the try area, resulted in mass scramble for players to touch the ball down. Rory Duncan failing at the first attempt, before James Parkinson secured the try. 7-10.
Greg Humphreyson in turn secured three points after a successful recovery from kick off. 10-10.
However, with Billingham’s full complement of players returning to the pitch, they began to pick up the intensity, and displayed some free running rugby with some fine line running and offloads unpicking our midfield defence. However, our scramble defence was good, with Kelly, Wallace and Fearon all tracking back to make some excellent cover tackles. Yet once you are in our 22, your scramble defence cannot save you, and sure enough Billingham found enough space in the midfield to score twice more. Leaving us down 10-24 at half time.
Unfortunately, I was not available to discuss what was said in the half time huddle, as I was treating Mike Cousins after his inevitable Achilles failure became too much. He showed courage and stupidly in equal measure to play on for so long, but scrummage and carried extremely well for a man on one leg.
Matt Freeman bravely volunteered to fill in at prop, despite limited experience, to prevent the sanctions from failing to provide a front row substitute, and scrummed extremely well until his recurring elbow injury forced him off.
The half time team talk that I had no part of, seemed to work well as the lads took a tighter hold on the game, and started to play in the right areas. Billingham were conceding penalties through the nose in their own 22, and with the lineout misfiring, we opted to tap and go which eventually resulted in Johnny Bird picking a hard line from the tap to crash over. 17-24.
Another successful recovery from kick off led to another penalty which Greg kicked. 20-24.
The rest of the second half saw a noticeable drop in intensity, which some of it was to our credit as we began to disrupt Billingham in defence, wrapping up the ball carrier better and making them force the game. We also appeared to have tired out the opposition and should have really pushed on in the final 15 minutes. Instead our attacking play lost some of it shape, and territory came at a premium. Thus we tried to play out of our 22 which put more pressure on our skills, and vicious circle of knock ons ensued with no yardage made by either side. Eventually we were caught isolated under our posts and conceded the penalty, which was kicked and the final whistle blew with the score at 20-27.
It was an odd match to describe, and those who didn’t watch the match will say it was a good result, which in some respects it was, as we didn’t play are best nor were we at full strength, yet the score line was close. However, knowing what we are capable of, and ambition and ability of, not only the squad but the team we fielded, we should have won that game. As I said above, the performance was based on perspective, and the good thing that came out the game was that everyone in that huddle knew despite how close the score was, that result reflected badly on where we want the team to go in the future.
Saying that we did scrap hard, and commitment was high throughout the game, with occasional lapses in concentration. On an individual basis, there were a number of strong performances. Martin Fearon had an excellent debut, and was a welcomed physical presence on the pitch, and was around the park like a young Jamie Wallace, who incidentally had an excellent game as well. As I mentioned before Mike Cousins, and Matt Freeman scrummage nobly through injury and inexperience respectably, and they were ably assisted by Tom Dias, and Greg’s mate James. Ben Kelly, James Bass (2nd mention of the report) & James Parkinson had a busy day in defence, as Billingham looked to attack the wider channels, and made their tackles accordingly. James Bass (3rd mention of the report) was the unwelcome recipient of some police brutality after being stamped on the head, luckily all the lads apologised to him and promise never to gang up on him in the shower again.
My thanks go to Billingham for a hard fought game, and Novocastrians send our condolences to all affected by the tragedy that befallen your tight knit club, and we were honoured to take part in your minute silence in a sign of solidarity.
A puzzling game for the Super 2s, however three things are clear. One, the team is moving in the right direction. Two, we need to improve our performance in order to secure the Candy Cup against Middlesbrough. Three, we thoroughly deserve a week off next weekend. Enjoy and COYS2.