OEs head coach was angered by the Old Boys’ wasteful first half display against Loughborough Students at College Meadow which saw them squander a host of try-scoring chances to lead only 20-5, and he admitted there were some strong words in the dressing room at the interval.

“In the heat of the moment on Saturday I was furious with our first half performance,” he revealed, “considering the amount of possession and territory we had it was one of the worst attacking performances from us I’ve seen. Individuals were doing what they wanted rather than what was best for the team.

“We said all week that if we looked after the ball we would score tries, yet we threw five miracle off-load passes when we had them stretched in their 22. Hold onto the ball for one more phase and we score all of those! We also had no discernible shape or structure to our game, players were going wherever they wanted. I was not happy!”

But Howard was quick to give credit to the players for the way they responded after the break, especially playing into a strong wind.
“The players knew what they were doing wrong without my half time team talk,” he said, “but we were so much better with the ball in the second half. We kept hold of the ball for numerous phases whilst still posing attacking threats across the pitch. This made it very difficult for Loughborough’s defence and why we scored four great tries into a very strong wind.

“It was an outstanding attacking performance in the second half whilst still leaving a few tries out there through dropped balls etc. But these things happen. I don’t mind them as much when we were at least making the right decisions, it was just execution that let us down which we will look at this week in training.”

While Howard is understandably refusing to get carried away after Elthamians’ rise to the summit just seven weeks into the new campaign, he admits their lofty position has exceeded all expectations so far.

“With four away games against Rotherham, Blackheath, Rosslyn Park and Sale in the first six weeks, I would have bitten your hand off to be top of the league now,” Howard said, “especially with the ridiculous injury list that we have. We have now used 35 players in just seven games this season - we only used 38 in the whole of last season!

“I always felt we were good enough to compete at the top of this league, but it’s a question of whether were are consistent enough to do this. It’s already been shown that anyone can beat anyone in this league, home or away. So every game is massively important. If a team can put a run of four or five wins together on the trot I think there will be some daylight between them and the rest.

It’s a lot easier said than done though!”