A blank Saturday comes at an opportune time for the Vale of Lune to take a deep breath and reassess their dramatic and rather disappointing opening nine fixtures in the rarefied atmosphere of North Premier and like Sisyphus they are going to find pushing this particular boulder up the hill challenging to say the least.
Only a blinkered optimist would have imagined that Level 5 rugby would be a cake walk for the Vale, they were bound to be tested both individually and collectively. Their record breaking season in 2017/18, when they finished as champions of North One West, counts for nothing against some of the most ambitious, wily, hardnosed clubs they are now rubbing shoulders with.
Vale’s playing record after nine games fully illustrates just how demanding life is; eight defeats plus one draw have yielded a total of seven league points. Although the Vale have got off to their worst winless league start ever, they can gain some comfort from their record, if that is possible, because at the beginning of the 2016/17 season by the end of October they had only won two of their eight games played with ten points in the locker, but they ended the season in fifth place.
Results do not tell the whole story because from day one the Vale have been plagued with selection problems at all senior levels. Key players have been unavailable for a variety of reasons, injuries, work commitments, holidays and this pattern has continued on and off throughout the opening ten weeks.
So far in the campaign the Vale have used thirty four players; with five making their debuts, as they strive to field a side that can reflect the talent that is available.
At times perusing the team sheets bring back memories of the famous sketch in a Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special when Andre Previn was the guest. Eric was seated at the piano plonking away at the keys and when asked by a puzzled Andre what he was playing, Eric replied Grieg’s Piano Concerto. “But you are playing all the wrong notes,” groaned Andre. Eric grabbed Andre’s lapel to inform him that, I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.”
The inability to put out a settled side, with players in their rightful positions on a regular basis, has been Vale’s Achilles’ heel but there have been games where the embers have started to flicker. Before the home game against Kirkby Lonsdale was abandoned the Vale were playing the type of rugby that had brought rewards the previous season and if that game had run its full course and with it a victory it might have provided the boost to confidence that was so much needed.
However, enough spirit was shown at Alnwick, at home against a very competent Hull side, in the draw a Lymm and for half the game against Harrogate. But the fires of zeal and passion have to harnessed for the full eighty minutes alongside adherence to a game plan, personal and team responsibility because in the lyrics of the song, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!” Without a doubt the Vale now know what the future holds, all is not lost, but life North Premier is far from a bed of roses.
As was to be expected, Jack Ayrton, Andy Powers, Harry Fellows, Ross Pillow have picked up from where they left off last season, while Sam Wallbank after missing the first three games through suspension, came back to add impetus and to bolster a pack that had a new look about it.
Life has been more unsettled for the threequarters. Fergus Owens, such an influential player on his day, and Jonty Higgin have played in half a dozen games. Record point’s breaker from last season, Damon Hall, has only made five appearances, the same as Jordan Dorrington and Chris Ramwell. Jack Turton has made the starting line up on four occasions as has had Ben Dorrington.
Hard working scrum half Billy Swarbrick has only missed one game, winger Olly Jacques has featured in seven of the fixtures but undoubtedly the chopping and changing, the mixing and matching plus the liberal application of sticking plaster in the backs, has seriously blunted Vale’s cutting edge.
Expectations of a turn round remain high and in the slag heap of disappointment a number of nuggets have been unearthed. Lock forward James Robinson has grown in stature game on game, rock solid in the tight and an explosive rampaging player in the loose. Another shining light has been Ruan Fourie, a South African back row player who is visiting the UK and staying with friends. He made a quiet, reflective debut at Alnwick, but burst into life against Hull, Lymm and Harrogate where he displayed hunting and gathering skills of the highest levels.
Another debutant, prop Mike Bradshaw, took a couple of games to adjust to a new environment but along with Steve Tagg and Andy Powers the front row has developed into a most proficient unit and with James Hesketh on the comeback trail things are looking up in the boiler room.
Vale are about to enter a crucial stage of the season with five games scheduled before the end of the year beginning with the fixture at Sandal on Saturday followed by a first ever league fixture at home against title chasing, Billingham. December begins with a visit to Rossendale, then a home game against Wirral and finally a pre Christmas visit to fellow strugglers, Wilmslow; but none in this quintet are going to be dishing out any life lines, they all have their own agendas to follow.
Victories are now of paramount importance to the Vale, formidable opponents will need to be overcome before the turn of the year as the Vale engineer their own version of “The Great Escape.” If points should be safely gathered in there might be some light at the end of a dark tunnel.
It is not yet mission impossible for the Vale, things can change dramatically if a few wins are notched up, and although Edmund Burke warned, “You can never plan the future by the past,” perhaps the Vale should ignore the advice of this man of letters on this occasion and learn from the opening nine fixtures because if not then the prospects appear dark and foreboding.
Now is not the moment to have someone like Corporal Jones running around the camp crying “Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic!-or Private Fraser balefully complaining “We’re all doomed!” What is required is that bayonets are firmly fixed and given a good going over with a whetstone before responding to Corporal Jones’s blood curdling war cry, “They don’t like it up ‘em!