Well, that was really quite frustrating in the end.
Two (arguably three) uncharacteristic defensive errors and we’re playing catch-up all game. Add to that – yet again – too many penalties and a lack of precision, and it feels less like gaining two points and more like leaving three.
I don’t know what’s happened to Jibs’s throwing. In the first game, he nailed everything, but since then, he’s been somewhat wayward. Not that Dickie was much better in this game: we won nine of thirteen lineouts, a 69% success rate. Not good enough.
In a previous trip down to Natalie Woods Welford Road, we had a storming first half, then buggered up the second. This time, we buggered up the first half, then had a much improved second. My hope is that, next time, we combine those games into two dominant halves of rugby. My fear is that we’ll combine them into two buggered-up halves.
So, did Leicester win that game, or did we lose it? I’m inclined to the latter, simply because of our discipline: ten penalties to five. Given that, ultimately, the score difference came down to a penalty goal versus a conversion, fewer silly infringements (where have I heard that before?) might have seen the narrow squeak go the other way.
Add to that, in the second half, when we did manage to pull things back, we then seemingly relaxed and allowed them to restore their lead. To be fair, Leicester could claim something similar: they restore their lead, only to switch off and allow us to pull it back. It was that kind of a back-and-forth twenty minutes.
Six minutes into the half, Luke James gave Sale hope, only for that hope to be dashed two minutes later by Ilione. Four minutes after that, Luke again set Leicester hearts fluttering, only for Whitely to restore the balance five minutes later, followed by Roebuck pulling it back for Sale again two minutes after that.
And there it sat for another ten minutes, when Luke went over for his third, prompting major squeaky bum time in the Leicester faithful as Sale were now one point behind. For the remaining ten minutes, I entertained hopes of a George Ford drop goal to seal a late victory, but it was not to be. With time up, Leicester, with five points already in the bag, kicked the ball dead, leaving us high and dry and reflecting on what could have been.
The two points from that game are as many as we’ve taken from defeats in the previous two seasons, so there are some signs of improvement there…
On a more serious note, I genuinely did see encouraging signs in that match. What I saw was a team that had almost, but not quite, got to grips with a new system. You can see what they’re trying to do; it’s that the execution is still a bit off – a second late, a yard too far forward, a slightly too-keen pass, that sort of thing. Even within the game, you could see them try a move on a couple of occasions: one time it works, another time it doesn’t.
The intent to expand our style has been evident from the outset, and I see no signs of losing faith in the approach. It’ll come good, I’m sure of that. Meanwhile, we’ve had one of the most difficult openings to a season that you could imagine, with both Bath and Sarries as your first two away games. Leicester, as the third away in five games, doesn’t help, although this has been the only one that I felt we genuinely threw away.
When I saw the fixtures before the start of the season, I will admit that my heart dropped seeing the first two away games. And yet, on the upside, it meant that they didn’t loom over us later in the season, they would be done and gone quickly, and, besides, it just means we get them at home later in the season. as it happened, I saw (again) a lot of good signs at the Rec in a game the weather reduced to something of a lottery. Sarries was a freak and should be ignored as far as assessing the team goes.
So, it comes down to this one as the only non-flawed indicator of where we are, and I think it’s “not too far off”. It casts a bright light on the way our lack of discipline (even if it is only a perception in the ref’s mind) continually haunts us. We were down to a bare-bones pack and did ourselves no favours in the first half, and yet we rallied and held on to come within a couple of points of victory.
So, no, I’m not panicking yet, especially since we now have some time for battered bodies to recover before taking up arms once again.
Plaudits this week to Luke James (obviously). If I recall correctly, it was an injury to Luke a few seasons back that gave Carps his chance to start; a chance that he grabbed and never relinquished. Now, it looks as if it may be Luke’s turn to exploit Carps’s injury and stake his own claim to the starting full-back spot. Certainly, a hat-trick here has done his standing no harm, and we can forgive a couple of early errors from someone who’s been out of first-team action for so long.
George Ford was—
Oh, fill in the rest. You know how it goes.
I think Tristan Woodman has acquitted himself well over the past couple of games. This experience will do him the power of good, given that I expect him to take a back seat once we get a couple of Curries back. But I do expect to see a lot more of him in the future.
We now have a month’s break, while the Prem Cup has a go, and we get to assess some of the fringe players. Then we do that silly thing where we come back for one round of the Premiership before heading off to Europe.
I’m not going to look deeply into the upcoming games, since I see the PRC as more of a chance to assess the upcoming guys than as a serious competition. So, whatever happens with the visit of Gloucester on Sunday, it’ll be a chance for the younger players to strut their stuff and for the old stagers to have a rest while we cheer on our international representatives in the Autumn Nations Series (apparently, it’s got a sponsor-y name now, but they can’t force me to use it…)
an old grey dog 