Doncaster 31-27 Bees
By Elliott Josypenko - At Castle Park
December 10 2005
Embarrassing. There's the one word to describe the Bees performance today. It was a case of cannots, and cannot be arseds, in a game in which the scoreline heavily flattered Bees, against an average at best Donny side.
By Elliott Josypenko - At Castle Park
December 10 2005
Embarrassing. There's the one word to describe the Bees performance today. It was a case of cannots, and cannot be arseds, in a game in which the scoreline heavily flattered Bees, against an average at best Donny side.
Doncaster 31-27 Pertemps Bees
Embarrassing. There's the one word to describe the Bees performance today. It was a case of cannots, and cannot be arseds, in a game in which the scoreline heavily flattered Bees, against an average at best Donny side.
Firstly, a massive thanks to the wonderful people of Doncaster who fought amongst themselves to help me on my arduous two hour public transport trip from neighbouring Sheffield. In future, when travelling to the stunning ground that is Castle Park (or mini Sixways), I shall know exactly where to go. Thank you.
And now, unfortunately, down to the rugby. Bees were of course ravaged with injuries, as shown by youngster Emyr Lewis’s inclusion at tight-head prop, and Duncan White’s inclusion in the second row. One rather interesting change to the advertised side was that Ryan Lamb was preferred to a presumably injured Tim Walsh. For the second time this season, Bees didn’t fill their bench, with the sheer lack of players showing. Tongan Rodney Mahe being the sixth man on the bench.
And so to the game. Bees actually began quite well and took possession before working their way up field. Their possession was ended with three points from Ryan Lamb. Unfortunately, veteran outside half Rob Liley cancelled these out with the first of his three in a faultless place kicking match. From this point onwards, it was clear that Mr Liley was the difference between the two sides. In only his second game back from injury, Liley took Doncaster to the lead with a 45 yard effort.
At this point, Bees hadn’t really had any possession but were defending reasonably well. That is until Nick Wakley (pronounced Wakeley) carved the centre pairing open in midfield, sending Joe van den Berg over, and the try was of course converted by Liley.
From this point onwards, Bees were dreadful. It wasn’t so much that they leaked points, Doncaster had only scored 19 upto the sixtieth minute, in fact the defence was quite solid. With the ball however, it was embarrassing. I’m not sure that in the entire course of the game Bees managed one play of five or more phases.
Frequently Bees would drop the ball forward at the base of the scrum, knock the ball on in simple passes or be penalised for holding onto the ball. They made it into the Donny 22 twice in the first half, once they dropped the ball at a lineout and once Ed Orgee conceded a penalty for holding on.
However, Donny had had a chunk of luck from referee Tim Wigglesworth. Nick Baxter jumped to catch the ball and as soon as he caught it, he was taken out with a stiff arm clothesline from prop Ngalu Tau, a cheap shot that was more akin to WWE than FDR. However, Tau was not punished at all for his disgusting and dangerous actions and Doncaster kept fifteen on the field.
Not much more could really be said in what was quite comfortably, the worst half of Bees rugby I’ve seen in my 11 years here. The ball was horribly slow from the base of rucks, meaning Ryan Lamb who had a shocker in all honesty, got little time to do anything. There was a complete lack of effort from some players, as much of the Bees back play looked pedestrian at best. There was also the case of a couple of players who simply don’t have it any more. Ed Orgee was switched to the back row because he can’t push from second row due to his knee. He was clearly miles off the pace and is unfortunately not a blindside flanker. Perhaps it’s time that this old warhorse was allowed to enjoy a nice retirement.
Just two players stood out for any sort of praise in the first half. Captain Jim Jenner was once again magnificent and gave some sort of order and organisation to a lacklustre Bees attack. Matt Miles was also good in the open.
I was considering going home.
The second half unfortunately started much the same. Bees doing nothing going forward, but not letting Doncaster over their try line. That was until the 61st minute when hooker Steve Boden crossed and Liley converted to make it 26-6.
Alex Davidson then received his first card of the festive season, unfortunately with a yellow colouring to it.
Bees then rung the changes in an urgent kind of nature as Tim Walsh, Ben Gerry, Rod Mahe, Reuben Leilau and Allan Gill entered the fray. Surely it was too late for a comeback.
As if someone had held a shotgun to their foreheads, each and every player on the field turned it on. There was suddenly some urgency to the play and Ryan Lamb at the base of the scrum and Tim Walsh worked really well. To say that Walshie was the difference in the last ten minutes would probably be harsh to others, but it probably was true.
In the last ten minutes, Bees managed to score three tries and the general play was stunning. Walshie was making gaps and adding some dynamism to the play as Leilau and Gerry made some great carries with the ball.
The last ten minutes was entirely Bees possession and the first try was scored by Walsh (converted by Lamb), and the second scored by Backo who made it to 149 (converted with a Lamb drop kick).
This took Bees to just 5 points from the hosts and a good injury time push could have seen Bees snatch a lead. So when Donny put the dropkick restart into Row Z of the stand (yes, it amazed me as well!!!), we were rubbing our hands with glee. Surely this possession could mean something. Unfortunately, Lamb knocked the ball on at the base of the scrum and Doncaster regained possession.
They then advanced up the pitch and eventually Donovan van Vuuren sneaked in at the corner. This conversion was not added as Bees had, we assumed, missed out on the bonus point.
However, Bees had one last rally and deep into injury time, Tom Beim ran in, giving Bees the bonus point in a game in which they really should’ve been looking to win.
These three tries added some false parity to the Bees performance. In reality, Doncaster could probably have been looking to stick 50 points on a lacklustre and disappointing Birmingham side.
It often makes you wonder- Why didn’t we play with the intensity of the last ten minutes but in the whole game?!
Embarrassing. There's the one word to describe the Bees performance today. It was a case of cannots, and cannot be arseds, in a game in which the scoreline heavily flattered Bees, against an average at best Donny side.
Firstly, a massive thanks to the wonderful people of Doncaster who fought amongst themselves to help me on my arduous two hour public transport trip from neighbouring Sheffield. In future, when travelling to the stunning ground that is Castle Park (or mini Sixways), I shall know exactly where to go. Thank you.
And now, unfortunately, down to the rugby. Bees were of course ravaged with injuries, as shown by youngster Emyr Lewis’s inclusion at tight-head prop, and Duncan White’s inclusion in the second row. One rather interesting change to the advertised side was that Ryan Lamb was preferred to a presumably injured Tim Walsh. For the second time this season, Bees didn’t fill their bench, with the sheer lack of players showing. Tongan Rodney Mahe being the sixth man on the bench.
And so to the game. Bees actually began quite well and took possession before working their way up field. Their possession was ended with three points from Ryan Lamb. Unfortunately, veteran outside half Rob Liley cancelled these out with the first of his three in a faultless place kicking match. From this point onwards, it was clear that Mr Liley was the difference between the two sides. In only his second game back from injury, Liley took Doncaster to the lead with a 45 yard effort.
At this point, Bees hadn’t really had any possession but were defending reasonably well. That is until Nick Wakley (pronounced Wakeley) carved the centre pairing open in midfield, sending Joe van den Berg over, and the try was of course converted by Liley.
From this point onwards, Bees were dreadful. It wasn’t so much that they leaked points, Doncaster had only scored 19 upto the sixtieth minute, in fact the defence was quite solid. With the ball however, it was embarrassing. I’m not sure that in the entire course of the game Bees managed one play of five or more phases.
Frequently Bees would drop the ball forward at the base of the scrum, knock the ball on in simple passes or be penalised for holding onto the ball. They made it into the Donny 22 twice in the first half, once they dropped the ball at a lineout and once Ed Orgee conceded a penalty for holding on.
However, Donny had had a chunk of luck from referee Tim Wigglesworth. Nick Baxter jumped to catch the ball and as soon as he caught it, he was taken out with a stiff arm clothesline from prop Ngalu Tau, a cheap shot that was more akin to WWE than FDR. However, Tau was not punished at all for his disgusting and dangerous actions and Doncaster kept fifteen on the field.
Not much more could really be said in what was quite comfortably, the worst half of Bees rugby I’ve seen in my 11 years here. The ball was horribly slow from the base of rucks, meaning Ryan Lamb who had a shocker in all honesty, got little time to do anything. There was a complete lack of effort from some players, as much of the Bees back play looked pedestrian at best. There was also the case of a couple of players who simply don’t have it any more. Ed Orgee was switched to the back row because he can’t push from second row due to his knee. He was clearly miles off the pace and is unfortunately not a blindside flanker. Perhaps it’s time that this old warhorse was allowed to enjoy a nice retirement.
Just two players stood out for any sort of praise in the first half. Captain Jim Jenner was once again magnificent and gave some sort of order and organisation to a lacklustre Bees attack. Matt Miles was also good in the open.
I was considering going home.
The second half unfortunately started much the same. Bees doing nothing going forward, but not letting Doncaster over their try line. That was until the 61st minute when hooker Steve Boden crossed and Liley converted to make it 26-6.
Alex Davidson then received his first card of the festive season, unfortunately with a yellow colouring to it.
Bees then rung the changes in an urgent kind of nature as Tim Walsh, Ben Gerry, Rod Mahe, Reuben Leilau and Allan Gill entered the fray. Surely it was too late for a comeback.
As if someone had held a shotgun to their foreheads, each and every player on the field turned it on. There was suddenly some urgency to the play and Ryan Lamb at the base of the scrum and Tim Walsh worked really well. To say that Walshie was the difference in the last ten minutes would probably be harsh to others, but it probably was true.
In the last ten minutes, Bees managed to score three tries and the general play was stunning. Walshie was making gaps and adding some dynamism to the play as Leilau and Gerry made some great carries with the ball.
The last ten minutes was entirely Bees possession and the first try was scored by Walsh (converted by Lamb), and the second scored by Backo who made it to 149 (converted with a Lamb drop kick).
This took Bees to just 5 points from the hosts and a good injury time push could have seen Bees snatch a lead. So when Donny put the dropkick restart into Row Z of the stand (yes, it amazed me as well!!!), we were rubbing our hands with glee. Surely this possession could mean something. Unfortunately, Lamb knocked the ball on at the base of the scrum and Doncaster regained possession.
They then advanced up the pitch and eventually Donovan van Vuuren sneaked in at the corner. This conversion was not added as Bees had, we assumed, missed out on the bonus point.
However, Bees had one last rally and deep into injury time, Tom Beim ran in, giving Bees the bonus point in a game in which they really should’ve been looking to win.
These three tries added some false parity to the Bees performance. In reality, Doncaster could probably have been looking to stick 50 points on a lacklustre and disappointing Birmingham side.
It often makes you wonder- Why didn’t we play with the intensity of the last ten minutes but in the whole game?!
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