Cornish Pirates 25 Manchester 10
Sunday Jauary 25th 2009

YOG's View Of the Match

A Litle Late - But better late than never

Yet again the Pirates come away with a five point win against statistically "lower" opposition, but yet again it wasn't really a performance to inspire. In many ways I could have posted the Southend report and just changed the names, the less than ideal playing conditions, the plucky underdogs who played a scrappy game, the Pirates playing as individuals, the five point win.

I have said in the past, that win or lose, all a fan wants to see is their team play with spirit, passion and effort. If a team is to go down, they should go down trying for all their worth. A couple notable games that come to mind are Rotherham away last season, and Exeter also away last season. Both games the Pirates lost, but in both games the Pirates fans went away happy (ish) because their team had given everything they had to give. By this measure the Manchester fans and players can come away with their heads held high this weekend, like the Southend team the week before. Can the Pirate team say the same ?

Considering the pitch was subject to an inspection on Friday, and Camborne played on it on the Saturday, it was in remarkably good condition for Sunday's match, certainly not brilliant, but a lot better than we had a right to expect, and a real testament to the ground staff that gave it some much needed TLC straight after the Camborne game. Even though the forecast rain held off until after the match, the pitch was exceedingly greasy, maybe not the mud soup of the week before, but enough for several players from both sides to lose their footing at critical times. The wind was also going to play an important role on the day. Having spent a couple hours before the match around the ground, the comment most heard was that this wasn't going to be a day for the kickers, the wind was strong, with even stronger gusts and was constantly swirling. This was borne out by the fact that no kicker from either team was successful in an attempt at the posts all afternoon.

The match started quietly enough, and whilst it might have been understandable for Manchester to wait and see what the Pirates were going to throw at them, there was a feeling that the Pirates should have dominated more during this early period. As we have seen time and again this season, no team in the league should be taken lightly, but there was a feeling in the opening twenty minutes that the Pirates were given the Manchester outfit a little too much respect. The Pirates seemed a little hesitant, almost as though they were the underdogs waiting for the mighty Manchester to crash in on them at any moment. It wasn't until around the twentieth minute that the Pirates decided that it was safe to step up a gear, and set about putting three tries past Manchester in the remaining twenty minutes of the half. The final twenty minutes of the first half were quite difficult to explain. On one hand, three tries in twenty minutes should have been a major lift to players and supporters alike, but it was the minutes between the tries that seemed to set the mood around the ground. The first try by Rhodri McAtee was a real cracker, and really lifted the mood of the crowd, but almost immediately the Pirates seemed to retreat back into their shell, playing extremely tentatively, interspersed with a few too many handelling errors. The good feeling was seeping away again … when the Pirates scored again and the mood was once more jacked up, surely now the Pirates would keep the momentum going and press their advantage … but no, it was back to tentative play and the mood began to slowly drop again. There is always a little bit of disappointment when a conversion kick is missed, and in all honesty I can't fault either Rhys Jones, and later Jimmy Moore, for their missed attempts at the posts considering the conditions, but I do think that these missed attempts may have exaggerated the lowered expectation in the crowd during the quiet times that followed each try.

Despite the rollercoaster end to the first half, the start of the second half promised great things. The first half ended with yet another impressive try from Iva, and the second half started almost immediately with an excellent try from Marika Vakacegu. With their tails up, and the expectation that fitness levels should work in their favour as the match went on, surely now was the time that the Pirates would really begin to dominate and turn the screws. Now was the time for team confidence building, now was the time to cut lose and build moral within the ranks ahead of the tougher matches to come. But no. It was at this stage that the team seamed to decided that the game was in the bag, and now was the time to conserve it's collective energy for the games ahead. Unfortunately somebody forgot to tell Manchester that this was how the game was supposed to finish. In fact it could have been a quite boring second half if Manchester hadn't decided to take the game to the Pirates and put two tries on the board themselves, which likely prodded the Pirates into scoring another try of their own when Manchester got uncomfortably close on the scoreboard.

Despite the inconsistent pace of the game, there were undoubtedly some good performances put in by various players on Sunday. Looking at the pitch/weather conditions, it was assumed that this was mainly going to be a forwards game, but in fact it was the backs that really shone, especially Rhodri who had an excellent game, and who looked to cover as many positions as he could, with other notable performances coming from Mark Ireland, Marika Vakacegu and Brian Tuohy. We have some really talent backs, who can really finish when they are given good service.

There are two ways of looking at Sunday's game, either through the cold impassionate eyes of a "stato", or from the point of view of a fan who has paid to be entertained. From a statistical point of view Sunday's game ticked all the right boxes, a five point win, the losing team denied a bonus point, at least 80% possession to the Pirates, Manchester only getting with 10 yards of the Pirates try line four times (although they scored twice when they did), and very few injuries picked up. By these measures the game was an unqualified success. However there are many people that turn up to a rugby match to be entertained, and odd as it may seem in a game where there are seven tries, it wasn't a very exciting game. It is difficult to say why a game should lose the excitement factor, but I suspect it could be put down to when a crowd senses a team are only giving 90% as opposed to 100%.

I do wonder if Sunday's performance didn't result from the management and/or the players having more than half an eye on next week's away match to Rotherham, a team that has caused us problems during the last few encounters. The players looked as though they were saving something back, and the substitutions looked more than a little odd, unless they were viewed from the point of view of resting those playing well and not risk them being injured ahead of tougher matches. And where was Adryan Whinnan (my personal man of the match from last week), injured or being rested ?

I must admit that I left Sunday's match feeling a little disappointed (despite the five point win), but if somebody had asked me if I would swap the tentative and inconsistent performance with the five point win for an exciting fast pace performance where the team gave 100% but lost, I would have called them a fool and taken the five point win every time.

So Rotherham next. Never an easy team to beat. They are full of pride, they are spirited, have many good players and are another team that tend to raise their game when playing the Pirates. I'll never forget the reaction from the Rotherham players and fans at beating the Pirates at home at the end of last season. They had had a really poor (by their standard) season, but it really meant a lot to them to beat the Pirates, and I have no doubt at all that they will have targeted us again this season, so the Pirates are really going to have to up their game if they want to come away with another win. They can do it, but they need to believe they can do it.

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