Cornish Pirates 19 Moseley 15

Sunday October 26th 2008

By YOG (Mark Curtis)

There was a lot of talk pre-match about which Moseley team were going to turn up to Camborne for this fixture, the Moseley team that would fall over as soon as anyone came towards them like they did at last season's home fixture, or the Moseley that played wide, fast and exciting rugby at the following away fixture. On the day it was the hardnosed, if sometimes cynical, but never give up Moseley that made the trip South for the first encounter between the two teams this season. Today the Moseley team might feel as though they are going home with the moral victory, and some Pirates fans might agree with them, but the hard cold facts are that it is the Pirates that came away with the points victory.

I'm sorry to say it, but with so much uncertainty in the league and the step up in form from teams that in previous seasons were "also rans", this is not the season for exhibition or "champaign" rugby. This is the season for down and dirty, win at all costs rugby, where every single point is worth the equivalent of five points from any other season. And today the Pirates walked away with four very valuable points …. but they didn't make it easy on themselves or the nerves of their fans.

Like so many Pirates games recently, today was a game of two halves, but unlike previous games it was the Pirates that dominated the first half. And dominated isn't too strong a word either. For the first forty minutes Moseley very seldom made it into the Pirates half, the Pirates running game was on top form, the tactical kicking was good, and all the players made good yardage even after initial tackle contact. It was a real joy to see so many players get past the gain line, either by side stepping their opposite numbers, or by powering through tackles to make additional gains.

Unfortunately, as with many things in life, it is easy to forget the many phases of good play that constantly took the Pirates deep into the Moseley half, and just remember the single knock on or isolated player that resulted in the ball being turned back to the opposition. And at the end of the first half there were just too many of these momentary lapses that took a lot of the shine off a Pirates first half that had been very good in all other respects. With the effort and dominance shown by the Pirates in the first half, it would not have taken much for them to go into the break with an additional two or three tries to their name.

I must admit to being slightly nervous going into the second half. The scoreline was too close for comfort, and in a number of games this season the team had shown a tendency to have a mini siesta in parts of the second half. Sure enough it was Moseley that began to inch forward as the game wore on, first catching the Pirates, then easing past them by the narrowest of margins.

There are two types of effort a team is expected to show on the field of play, physical effort, and mental effort. In the first half the Pirates showed they were capable of both types of effort, they looked as though they had a game plan, they looked as though they were constantly looking to adapt, and all the time they pushed themselves to equal this with the required physical effort. Unfortunately in the second half the team looked to become slightly leaderless, they kept putting in the physical effort, but without the mental effort the physical counts for little. Time after time the Pirates would throw themselves at the Moseley defensive line, but without a clear plan of attack Moseley were able to repel the attack and follow with a counter of their own.

I suspect like many others my head began to drop when Moseley inched ahead late in the second half, and it dropped even further as the final minutes drew on with Pirates having failed to yet again come away with any points after two yet again very good build ups. It did not look as the Ref for the day, Nick Williams, could let the game go much longer. But then there was yet another Pirates break, the ball was spun wide, and Brian Tuohy dived over for a try that restored a lot of the spirit to the Pirates faithful. There had been a some talk in some areas lately that maybe some of the team were turning up just for a pay check and that their hearts weren't really in it, I think the sight of the players celebrating after the final try will put some of that talk to rest, whilst some of it might have been relief, there was an awful lot of pride and passion in there as well.

What of Moseley ?
I'm honestly not sure what to make of the Moseley team that turned up today. Whilst it wasn't the best Moseley performance I have ever seen, it certainly wasn't the worst either. There were two main things that really stood them in good stead today, they came to win, and they never gave up. For a squad that didn't look the fittest, they never stopped trying, and compensated well by playing to their strengths. When they had a whole pitch to defend, Moseley looked a little slow and out of sorts, the Pirates being able to breach their first line of defence often. But when their backs were to the wall, within their own five yard line, the Moseley defence was strong and sure.

The officials. I'm a great believer in that they should be seen but seldom heard, but today it went a little far in that direction. I'm not sure there was a single Moseley lineout that was straight (or close to being straight), and the crowd were stunned into silence when no action was taken when a Pirates lineout receiver was tackled by a Moseley player stood at least two to three yards behind him on the Pirates side of the lineout. The fact that the Pirates last gasp winning try was scored from a considerably forward pass would normally make me very uncomfortable with embarrassment, but not this time, as it felt only fair after so many infringements throughout the rest of the game had gone un-noticed.

This was certainly not a game where any of the three officials had a major effect on the outcome of the game, but both sets of fans will have gone away listing a dozen or more instances where their team had been hard done by.

The team. The physical effort was there for the full eighty minutes in bucket loads, although the mental effort did wane a little in the second half, but thankfully was never switched off completely.

Finishing certainly looks to be the next thing on the coaches list of things to sort out. Though out the game the Pirates had between 80-90% of both the possession and territory, but very seldom were they able to convert it into points. By contrast Moseley had little more than three or four chances to score in the whole game, the difference was that they came away with points each time.

In fairness I went into the game today believing it would be very close, but the performance from the Pirates (especially in the first half), left me feeling that the game should have been anything but close come the final whistle.

The individuals. I know Heino got man of the match today, but I would have given it to either Adryan Winnan or Iva, who both had outstanding games. On balance I would probably have given it to Adryan, just to spite his recent critics. Other than that I thought the forwards had a good game, a lot of "hard yards" made against a very determined Moseley.

On a not so pleasant note, I hope Rob Elloway makes a very speedy recovery after damaging his ankle. I know Rob said afterwards that he hopes to be back in two or three weeks, but I think that might be an optimist opinion from a guy that would run through a brick wall if he was asked to. But whilst we temporarily lose the services of one very talented front row forward, another is given a chance to shine. Step up Darren Dawidiuk, a Cornish boy with a lot of potential.

With the next four games being a very mixed bag, we should be in for an interesting time.
Personally I can't wait.

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