By Gelbel
December 17 2014
Although the Yorkshire Post have announced that Tommy McGee has been told to continue in his role as caretaker head coach of Yorkshire Carnegie for the foreseeable future, at the time of writing, we are still waiting to hear from the club who is the main man steering the good ship Yorkshire Carnegie.
But what we do know is that under Tommy's leadership the team has gone from woefully poor, with as much motivation as needed to eat a plate of cold, over-cooked, leftover sprouts, to something like what we come to expect with a load of passion thrown in for good measure. The majority of the handling errors have stopped and our defence is becoming a force to be reckoned with once more. We're also playing a bit of heads up rugby, although we are still kicking the ball away too often.
And while you could argue it's only been cup matches, the three wins have been hard fought; having a scare after an early lead at Aberavon, coming from behind against Ulster and beating a very determined and experienced Rotherham side. Yorkshire Carnegie have seemed to build on each performance and having to fight for the wins can only add to the confidence.
Jersey have lost all three matches of their recent matches in the cup. They may've lost their previous matches against London Scottish and Worcester in the league too - but they ran Worcester very close at Sixways. While Yorkshire Carnegie lie a lowly tenth in the league, there are several clubs jockeying for position in and around the seven to ten berth. So with those other clubs having some hard fixtures, certainly harder than ours on paper, a win would see our heroes climbing several places up the table.
So how to make that happen? There has been a bit of rotation in recent weeks, which is understandable, so I am assuming that Richard Beck will be available for Hannay who does not make my bench. Add in Dudman to start and I'd be inclined to keep the faith in the squad that was named for the Rotherham match and that includes giving Josh Bainbridge a starting place - he's taken his opportunities well. In his Rotherham post-match interview (you know the one with the questions edited out along with most of the first word of the start of Tommy's reply) it sounds as if Mcllwaine has dislocated his shoulder. So we may have to put Goss back on the wing (Doc's not the speedster he was - and I assume he's not the 'Dave' with the crook shoulder as he did not feature on Saturday) and hope Vickerman is fit. This means we may be lighter than ever in the backs. Just as well the ground at St Peter's can be on the heavy side at this time of the year as it means the forwards can do the damage we saw against Ulster.
With the new vitality at the club I predict an away win; if the scrum is anything like we saw at Huddersfield a four-try BP could be on the cards. And that would make for a nice early present and those of us travelling to Jersey could return all joyful and triumphant. And for the tough matches coming up through to mid-January any win against the islanders, which is never an easy place to go to, would be a much needed boost of form and confidence.
Safe journey to those going – see you in the airport bar or in some local hostelries or at the match.
View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.