Launceston Rugby Club

The last time out for the Blacks saw them get a much needed win after two narrow loses against a good Southend outfit who did not give an inch making the Blacks work for everything. Southend started brightly scoring the first try through some good phase play managing to sneak over in the corner. Then the blacks hit back through a brace of try’s from the returning winger Richard Bright, the first was through some sustained pressure in the Southend 22, with the forwards sucking in their defence creating space out wide for Brighty to sneak under the sticks. The second was a well worked backs move straight off a lineout that exposed Southend around the 15 metre channel, with Brighty streaking in from 50 metre showing excellence pace. But the Blacks were unable to keep the tempo in their favour and after some prolonged pressure in the Blacks 22 metre they manage to sneak around the side of a ruck to score, 14 – 10 at half time.
The message at half time was to put a little more control into the performance, I used the cricketing analogy we were trying to hit a 6 every time we had the ball instead of taking the easy singles. This struck accord with the team and they came out in the second half and took complete control over the game, through a very dominant scum and the inform Kieron Lewitt striking over penalty after penalty. This opened up a 13 point lead, which knock the stuffing out of their opponents and the Blacks finished it off in style with a try by Jamie Tripcony after some good driving play by the forwards. The only slight disappointment was we did not get the try bonus point, but the reason for this is we did not take the easy singles in the in the first half that would allow us to hit the sixes in the second. This is a valuable lesson learnt and could be a reason why we are sitting on the second highest for losing bonus points (Dings the highest) and to be honest losing to teams that we should not lost to!
The boys are well rested for today’s game after last week’s break and I hope they have learnt the lesson from the Southend game and are come out firing on all cylinders to get the win. If they do not Dings are lying in wait and are more than capable of punishing any weakness that the Blacks show. Lastly thank you for your continued support and remember keep the faith!