Hmm. It seems that, perhaps, Asher is human after all.
That, or Waller did a bang-on job of fooling the ref. (Fooling an experienced referee or getting the better of a good, but green, 19-year-old prop? Tough one to call…)
It could be a good thing that he was brought down to Earth with a severe bump in this game. It should certainly squash any small seeds of a belief in the hype that may have been thinking of blossoming. Any prodigy needs a reminder that they can fail (that scene in The Queen’s Gambit where Beth loses her first tournament match comes to mind). Asher will recover from the ignominy of not only being bested, but of giving away the winning score and having to kick his heels on the sidelines whilst the game played out, and he’ll be the better player for it.
Talking of chess, I wish commentators would stop labelling everything that doesn’t involve loads of scoring and backs scything through defences as ‘boring’. Rugby is a multi-faceted game which sometimes involves struggles for dominance over extended periods.
I view aspects of the game such as that first half in much the same way as I used to watch – and I’m really showing my age here – Derek Underwood trying to winkle out a particularly troublesome batsman. Fascinating for those with some understanding of or deep interest in the game, incomprehensible and somewhat boring to others and a million miles from T20.
As Nigel Owens might have put it, “This is not Australia. We like some nuance to our game.” OK, thirty-seven minutes of it is pushing anyone’s patience in the face of “nuance”, but I still feel that it is incumbent on the commentators – who are supposed to have an understanding of the game – to do a bit more to explain the subtlety of what’s going on, rather than a perfunctory attempt before resorting to trashing the game in front of them. But I suppose the telly people want excitement and excitement they must have.
In the end, the mind games paid off – Deadly got one to dig into a bit of rough outside the off stump – and we got the breakthrough we needed when Carps latched onto a neat pass and strolled through a big hole in the defence. Seven-nil up at half-time and things were looking promising.
‘Promising’ became ‘exciting’ seven minutes into the second half when Dickie went over from the back of a maul to take the lead to fourteen. At this point, we were starting to believe that we could take four points – or even five – from this game.
But then Furbank scored to bring Saints back into it and the lead started to look a bit more fragile. Fordy kicked a penalty (it was a drop goal, you pillock – Ed) to give us a bit of breathing space but, when Mitchell scored with fifteen minutes to go to reduce the deficit to three, doubts started to take hold.
And now, worryingly, some of the Sale players – mostly forwards – were showing distinct signs of fatigue. So much so that they were slow to respond to a quick tap penalty five metres out. Asher made an offside tackle resulting in a penalty try and a yellow card. Four points down, ten minutes to go and a bunch of guys looking utterly cream-crackered.
They held out, though, and even managed to threaten a score but couldn’t quite get there as tired legs and bodies paid the price.
So we picked up a bonus point and, with Leicester doing us a favour, only dropped one more place to third. But I think that period of visible fatigue concerns me the most from this game. I’ve never seen them look so tired at the end of a match as they did this time. And, with only a six-day turnaround to the Bristol game, there has to be some concern about whether we’ll have a fully energised side for what is a must-win encounter.
I trust that such an exceptional occurrence has an equally exceptional cause and it’s not a result of incessant matches and extra duties necessitated by the absence of others through injury. When we’re missing the likes of Tom C, Tom E, Bev, SiMac and Dan from the forwards, there’s going to be some extra pressure put on everyone else.
The squad get a long rest and plenty of time to recuperate during the six nations but, before then, we still have two Premiership and two European games to play. I would be quite happy if Alex were to tacitly let the guys know that Europe is not a priority, that they should summon up everything they can muster for this upcoming game against Brizz and use the Euro weekends to recharge ready for an assault on Gloucester at Kingsholm.
Whilst I think we stand a decent chance at home to La Rochelle and could qualify for the round of sixteen, I’m not that fussed this year; certainly not if it impacts our league performance. I know Alex and the team will say that they want to fight for everything – and quite right, too; I would expect no less. But, as a supporter, I get to choose my priorities for what I want out of the season and I want another weekend in Twickenham watching my team go for the title again.
Bristol are not having the best of seasons (puts our ‘difficulties’ into perspective), we’ve already beaten them handsomely at their place and we have a good record against them, so I’m hopeful of a good win and the full five league points.
The SAMP™-5 prediction is encouraging (no SAMP-10 because we’ve only played them six times in the last twelve years)
| SAMP-5 | Sale 31 – 14 Bristol |
Please let that not have jinxed it – for one thing, Exeter play Northampton, so a win will move us above one of them. Mind you, Bath will probably get five against Gloucester, so we still need the bonus point win to keep them behind.
Be positive; give it everything: on the field and in the stands.
an old grey dog 