Back on Track?.....Almost

After last weeks effort, or lack of (more appropriately) against local rivals Yatton it was anyone’s guess as to which Clevedon team may turn up. However after a good warm up complemented by our latest coaching acquisition Mr P Astle (Forward Guru), we took to the paddock with high hopes of banishing all recollections of the previous weeks dismantling.

Unfortunately within minutes of the start off we allowed one of the strong Nailsea runners to waltz his way over through some disappointing tackle attempts and gift an early score for the hosts. However to their credit this seemed to galvanize the guys and slowly we began to show glimpses of what we can achieve when we put our minds to it, with Mac striking back before the end of the first period with a typical barnstorming effort from the captain. Although the second period of 10 mins showed further general improvements with the pack proving dominant in the scrums and beginning to drive out some of the rucks to good effect. It was a lapse of effort that saw NABRFC steal the lead at the half way point. After the break Clevedon came alive showing some real classy play. At long last the ball was being put in front of the receiver, allowing him to come on to the ball and create that all important momentum that had been lacking thus far. This tiny improvement saw us attack with far more flow and intelligence. A fantastic choice by “The Tornado” saw him check back away from danger and find Dan in space who finished in style from 20m and almost looking as fleet footed as his old man and grandfather who watched on approvingly from the sideline. Finn was next up pouncing across the whitewash and capping a very encouraging debut at hooker! Mac rounded off an excellent 10mins quarter after some great build up play crashing over for his second of the day in true KFC stylee’ leaving the scores 4 trys to 2 on the half hour mark……………..Job done?……..”Havana time”……………..Not quite! Despite the warnings of a comeback from the coaching staff we packed away our tackle shoulders and almost from the kick off allowed a strong Nailsea chap to walk through at least 6 tackles before sliding across in the corner for a good individual try. Clevedon now woke up but instead of playing with the confidence and flair that had been evident in the previous quarter we seemed to hibernate into defensive mode, kicking away good possession, panicking with silly long passes and continually running into trouble and losing the ball. Boys please understand, this is only a game, we are hopefully developing you as players each week, the result is inconsequential, if we lose we lose, but let’s lose playing rugby not like some kind of Vauxhall Conference outfit defending for their lives against Man U to reach the next round of the FA Cup! There should be no pressure just, play and enjoy – you’ll be surprised how effective that can be. So somewhat predictably we eventually succumbed to the intense self imposed pressure and a little mistake here and there saw N&B drop over for a well deserved try and sealed yet another stalemate between the two clubs. All in all that was a very fair outcome all round and was a vast improvement on the previous week from our point of view and proved to be a really exciting and nail biting game for the sizable crowds. Hero of the day was awarded to Finn, who normally languishes out in the backs but on this occasion stepped up at late notice to try hooker for the first time. He not only did a job but proved to be an option for the future – well done mate. Most improved went to Tyler Leaman who only took up the game 30 minutes ago (after recently turning his back on the “other” apparently popular sport who’s name shall not be whispered in daylight!!!) and looked really comfortable out there and may be an exciting prospect with a bit of training. Well done to all for contributing to a great example of clean, fair and committed youth rugby.

It would be nice to leave it there but unfortunately there are a couple of incidental issues that are worth “putting to bed”. The more astute of you may notice a difference of opinion in the result between ours and Nailsea’s website. I wholeheartedly concede that officially N&B won this match on conversions – not missing one in actual fact. Those of you that know me will concur that at this age grade I do see the need for practising conversions if you have time(for fun, in readiness for next year), however in general I personally believe they are a waste of valuable game time and I don’t see the point of an individual’s capability in front of the posts having any bearing on the final result. This is why we encourage everybody to have a go, and why yesterday we allowed a guy to have a bash even though he’d never even tried before – unbelievably he got the only one we converted!!!! So, did we draw? Did we lose? Does it matter?

Secondly there was a little bit of tension come the final whistle regarding some of the refereeing especially leading up to that controversial final score! The Referee is the Referee and wrong or right he is RIGHT. It’s not a knock on (or three) unless he blows for it, it’s not offside if he doesn’t think it is and it’s definitely, definitely, a try if he’s seen it to be – especially with the excitement of a home crowd willing him on and even if it was in the 16th minute of a 10 minute period!!!!!!! This is all a little tongue in cheek, we see it one way Nailsea will undoubtedly see it another, that’s the wonderful beauty of sport………..the ability to see the same event from such different perspectives because of our personal investment is quite astounding. Some refs are good some are bad, whether they mean to be is a whole different question again. The fact is without them we have no game at all. It’s a tough job I promise you. So after the initial disappointment of conceding “that try” and some of the comments it was good to see that once we all calmed down our class and respect shone through, thank you. We didn’t lose to a referee or some bad decisions made by the referee, we lost because on two occasions we allowed them to score too easily, we lost because we went to sleep at the wrong times, we lost because we are a young inexperienced developing side – there’s no shame in that.

So rounding off, I asked for an improved forward performance, this very much happened – at times we were excellent in the rucks. I asked for tackling to improve, this was leagues better than last week against some very strong Nailsea players however there was standout tackling from Wills and Harris particularly who between them must have stopped 6 trys at least (we all need to be tackling like these two). And finally don’t blame the referee – out of 27 people on the pitch he probably made the least mistakes, think about that. And there’s no arguing, whoever makes the least mistakes always wins the game. Sorry for the long one! See you all Sunday.