Uncharacteristically lacklustre performance for the win

Match report

With a number of lads unavailable and many more whose thoughts were still on the slopes, we were unable to get the ball moving to utilise the space out wide. Having played Chelmsford in the pre-season we knew they would be looking to utilise their forward play and our defensive work was solid in this respect. But in attack we were unable to get our usual fluidity moving and found it difficult to play in the right areas of the park. There were glimpses of what we are capable of at the start of the second half when we scored two quick tries and started to look like we were going to deliver the type of performance Wednesday's training session had implied but we couldn't maintain the intensity or consistency we needed. However, our determination to grind out the win even when we were not firing on all cylinders is a testament to the lads but we made too many basic handling errors and couldn't get our usually solid set piece to function.

Still the sign of a good side is one who can work out a way to get the result even when they are not playing to their best ability. The squad mentality of this group of lads is impressive and they play hard for each other and never criticise each other when things don't go to their plan. Despite it being a league game praise must be given to Chris Rice and Alfie Morris who both played well for Chelmsford when one of their lads got injured and demonstrated the values of the game and the desire of our coaches to ensure the game is played in the spirit intended.

Onwards and upwards to Westcliffe in the league next week which is always a tough encounter.