28 Oct 2007 - Nailsea V's Combe Down
With Coach Hawkes away, selection was left to Captain Hooper and once again there were more changes to the side for the 8th consecutive week.
In the fatties, Jack Quick moved to blindside, Palmer switched to open-side and Seidle stayed at 8. In the softies, Jason patch moved to Full Back to replace the injured Tom Morris and Scott Farrer returned to the wing after a few weeks sidelined.
The players knew this week that without a coach, they would have to dig deep into their concentration and belief in the team if they were to be victorious and playing with the wind and down the slope in the first half, Nailsea certainly did not do this in the manner they have been taught. It would be wrong of me not to highlight the lack of heart, enthusiasm and unorganised rugby that Nailsea played for 50 minutes. Goodall kicking badly for territory, Pidge not finding his man in the lineouts and the team making more errors than an error making machine running on full power!! ,for some reason Nailsea tried to play rugby without actually catching or passing the ball anywhere near a standard required to compete in the minis league. Nailsea were very lucky that the one thing they did not let slip in this game was the defence or they would have undoubtedly been going into the break trailing this game.
There wasn't much to shout about in this first half except a Pete Reakes yellow card for questioning the rules of the game, (Pete they are laws, not rules!!!!)
Half time 0 - 0
Some strong words were said at half time and the order of the day was to stand up and be counted, Nailsea were playing lack luster rugby and did not look like they wanted to win this match as much as Combe Down. Combe's heads were up and they now had the advantage of the wind and the slope and it's also worth while mentioning that Combe Down will certainly not stay down the bottom end of the table if they perform like that every week, I talk about Nailsea performing badly in the first half but don't be disillusioned by Combs's performance, which was impressive.
Ten minutes into the second half, Fly Half Paul Stephens was yellow carded for Smiling and to quote the Referee, "I'm not having a bloody idiot on the pitch!!!" (Only word missing from that would be "welsh")
Combe took a 3 - 0 lead from the resulting penalty and Nailsea looked like their first defeat was imminent???..then from nowhere the Nailsea Team sprang into life and somewhat woke up to the fact they did actually want to win this game.
The travelling crowd were then treated to 30 mins of rugby in it's best form, Goodall made a break through the Combe pack, offloading to Hooper, onto Palmer, back to Hooper, who was stopped just short of the line, with the opposing prop sin binned for not rolling away, Hooper opted for a scrum, which Nailsea dominated all day, Nailsea pushed Combe back over the line where a clear infringement left the referee no option to reward Nailsea with a penalty try, with Stephens still off the field, Goodall converted.
The last 20 mins saw Nailsea lift their game and all of the rugby was then played in the combe down half. Richard Palmer, Justin Seidle and Mark Hooper all made yard gaining breaks up the field which started to scare the opposition, then from another Goodall break Palmer was put through to set up Paul Stephens, who literally crashed his way through two players over the line for his first try of the season (finally!!) which he duly converted himself - 14 - 3
So - in summary, big respect to Combe Down who played superbly well on the day, Nailsea will be disappointed with the first 50 mins performance and rightly so, however, they should also be proud of the way that with their backs to the walls they finally came out of their shells and "just played rugby". This showed the type of team spirit and togetherness that will get this team promoted and a tough test for this squad was dealt with in the best possible way.....with a win.
Difficult to give special mentions this week but the way some of the players reacted to this potential loss changed the game for Nailsea; Jay Ford in particular came off the bench and gave an inspiring performance.
With allot of talk about the referee this week I would like to mirror that of the England rugby team, you have to move on from bad decisions and forget about them - yes, the referee made some dubious decisions and disappointing that he felt the need to personally insult a player, however, without them, we couldn't play rugby and as players, we need to learn that no matter how frustrated and right we think we are, WE HAVE to play the game the referees way and that he/she will always be right, it's another test of character and individual discipline and on reflection think that when everyone stopped worrying about the referees abilities and concentrated on their own we performed much better.
Test passed and still undefeated, our coach returns this week and very important that we got a win in his absence, I would also like to thank on behalf of all the players the two coaches who gave up their time last week to come down and help us in training, thank you.
Team - Hooper, Kemp, Smith, Ogbourne, Reakes, Quick, Palmer, Seidle, Goodman, Stephens, Goodall, Blackwell, Watkins, Farrer, Patch.
Reps - Kirk (unused), J.Ford (for Quick 50mins), Leach (for Farrer 68mins)
Final Score: 14 - 3
Tries: Mark Hawkes (PT), Paul Stephens
Conv: Scott Goodall (1) Paul Stephens (1)
Pens: Combe Down
DG:
Mark Hoopers "captains quote"
If we can play sixty minutes of bad rugby and still win, it shows that even when things aren't going our way we can still get the job done.
Suicide Watch
As per last week, Mark has been away under supervision and luckily would not have seen the game Saturday as we are positive it may have taken him over the edge.
I hate to say it but the team will be looking forward to his return and guidance this week before another tough trip away to Bristol Barbarians.
Statto News.
Minutes played out of 640mins
1.) Mark Hooper - 640
2.) Bradley Kemp - 630
3.) Geordy Smith - 590
4.) Paul Stephens - 560
5.) Dicky Palmer - 545
Kicking Accuracies (need 1 to qualify!!!)
1.) Scott Goodall 100% (1 from 1)
2.) Paul Stephens 66% (40 from 60)
3.) Alex Blackwell 40% (2 from 5)
Total Team - 65% (43 from 66)
In the fatties, Jack Quick moved to blindside, Palmer switched to open-side and Seidle stayed at 8. In the softies, Jason patch moved to Full Back to replace the injured Tom Morris and Scott Farrer returned to the wing after a few weeks sidelined.
The players knew this week that without a coach, they would have to dig deep into their concentration and belief in the team if they were to be victorious and playing with the wind and down the slope in the first half, Nailsea certainly did not do this in the manner they have been taught. It would be wrong of me not to highlight the lack of heart, enthusiasm and unorganised rugby that Nailsea played for 50 minutes. Goodall kicking badly for territory, Pidge not finding his man in the lineouts and the team making more errors than an error making machine running on full power!! ,for some reason Nailsea tried to play rugby without actually catching or passing the ball anywhere near a standard required to compete in the minis league. Nailsea were very lucky that the one thing they did not let slip in this game was the defence or they would have undoubtedly been going into the break trailing this game.
There wasn't much to shout about in this first half except a Pete Reakes yellow card for questioning the rules of the game, (Pete they are laws, not rules!!!!)
Half time 0 - 0
Some strong words were said at half time and the order of the day was to stand up and be counted, Nailsea were playing lack luster rugby and did not look like they wanted to win this match as much as Combe Down. Combe's heads were up and they now had the advantage of the wind and the slope and it's also worth while mentioning that Combe Down will certainly not stay down the bottom end of the table if they perform like that every week, I talk about Nailsea performing badly in the first half but don't be disillusioned by Combs's performance, which was impressive.
Ten minutes into the second half, Fly Half Paul Stephens was yellow carded for Smiling and to quote the Referee, "I'm not having a bloody idiot on the pitch!!!" (Only word missing from that would be "welsh")
Combe took a 3 - 0 lead from the resulting penalty and Nailsea looked like their first defeat was imminent???..then from nowhere the Nailsea Team sprang into life and somewhat woke up to the fact they did actually want to win this game.
The travelling crowd were then treated to 30 mins of rugby in it's best form, Goodall made a break through the Combe pack, offloading to Hooper, onto Palmer, back to Hooper, who was stopped just short of the line, with the opposing prop sin binned for not rolling away, Hooper opted for a scrum, which Nailsea dominated all day, Nailsea pushed Combe back over the line where a clear infringement left the referee no option to reward Nailsea with a penalty try, with Stephens still off the field, Goodall converted.
The last 20 mins saw Nailsea lift their game and all of the rugby was then played in the combe down half. Richard Palmer, Justin Seidle and Mark Hooper all made yard gaining breaks up the field which started to scare the opposition, then from another Goodall break Palmer was put through to set up Paul Stephens, who literally crashed his way through two players over the line for his first try of the season (finally!!) which he duly converted himself - 14 - 3
So - in summary, big respect to Combe Down who played superbly well on the day, Nailsea will be disappointed with the first 50 mins performance and rightly so, however, they should also be proud of the way that with their backs to the walls they finally came out of their shells and "just played rugby". This showed the type of team spirit and togetherness that will get this team promoted and a tough test for this squad was dealt with in the best possible way.....with a win.
Difficult to give special mentions this week but the way some of the players reacted to this potential loss changed the game for Nailsea; Jay Ford in particular came off the bench and gave an inspiring performance.
With allot of talk about the referee this week I would like to mirror that of the England rugby team, you have to move on from bad decisions and forget about them - yes, the referee made some dubious decisions and disappointing that he felt the need to personally insult a player, however, without them, we couldn't play rugby and as players, we need to learn that no matter how frustrated and right we think we are, WE HAVE to play the game the referees way and that he/she will always be right, it's another test of character and individual discipline and on reflection think that when everyone stopped worrying about the referees abilities and concentrated on their own we performed much better.
Test passed and still undefeated, our coach returns this week and very important that we got a win in his absence, I would also like to thank on behalf of all the players the two coaches who gave up their time last week to come down and help us in training, thank you.
Team - Hooper, Kemp, Smith, Ogbourne, Reakes, Quick, Palmer, Seidle, Goodman, Stephens, Goodall, Blackwell, Watkins, Farrer, Patch.
Reps - Kirk (unused), J.Ford (for Quick 50mins), Leach (for Farrer 68mins)
Final Score: 14 - 3
Tries: Mark Hawkes (PT), Paul Stephens
Conv: Scott Goodall (1) Paul Stephens (1)
Pens: Combe Down
DG:
Mark Hoopers "captains quote"
If we can play sixty minutes of bad rugby and still win, it shows that even when things aren't going our way we can still get the job done.
Suicide Watch
As per last week, Mark has been away under supervision and luckily would not have seen the game Saturday as we are positive it may have taken him over the edge.
I hate to say it but the team will be looking forward to his return and guidance this week before another tough trip away to Bristol Barbarians.
Statto News.
Minutes played out of 640mins
1.) Mark Hooper - 640
2.) Bradley Kemp - 630
3.) Geordy Smith - 590
4.) Paul Stephens - 560
5.) Dicky Palmer - 545
Kicking Accuracies (need 1 to qualify!!!)
1.) Scott Goodall 100% (1 from 1)
2.) Paul Stephens 66% (40 from 60)
3.) Alex Blackwell 40% (2 from 5)
Total Team - 65% (43 from 66)