Out Fez'd
Sarries Beat Sorry’s in end of season hurrah.
Out Fez'd
By Reading Fatboy
May 10 2004
On a day when all our rivals for the Wildcard slots had tough away games, while we had a supposedly easy home game, and every chance of picking up the points required, to give it one final lash, and try to get into the Heineken cup.
Out Fez'd
May 10 2004
On a day when all our rivals for the Wildcard slots had tough away games, while we had a supposedly easy home game, and every chance of picking up the points required, to give it one final lash, and try to get into the Heineken cup.
It falls to this reporter to sum up a disappointing end to a disappointing season.
On a day when all our rivals for the Wildcard slots had tough away games, while we had a supposedly easy home game, and every chance of picking up the points required, to give it one final lash, and try to get into the Heineken cup.
Those damned Fez heads didn’t read the script though, they put in a spirited and imaginitive performance, and Gave us a cameo from Mr. Bailey, who was in this writers opinion the best centre threequarter seen on this ground this season. At the end we found out that no one else had read the scripts left in the back of the Twickenham taxi either, as Tigs and Sale won, and Quins got the BP they needed, which rendered even a 5 point win by us, useless.
Ah well, it was a nice dream while it lasted.
So the game.
It started off bright enough, in as much as Sarries were making even more mistakes than us, (one of the Sarries players told me afterwards that the ball was like a bar of soap all game). But both sides were dropping passes, and almost every move ended in a knock on. Our scrum looked solid enough, but on many occasions, O’Sheas picked and went, and just turned the won ball over on the gainline. (Good luck for the future Chris, but today, it was surely only sentiment that kept the big Murph on the bench).
Anyway, in the early exchanges, the only two phases that didn’t end with errors, ended with penalties to us, both long range, both dead straight by tofty, 6- 0 to us.
The game struggled from phase to phase with Sarries becoming more and more dangerous, eventually in the 29th Minute, it all came to life a bit, Sarries kicked a penalty to the corner, easily won the lineout, and even more easily got the drive on for the try.
After this we were basically under the cosh for the rest of the half. From sarries next attack, Rob Hoadley was carded for killing the ball in a ruck, and the remainder of the half was spent with backs to the wall defence. Somehow we kept them out. The most creditable quality of this team remains dogged defence, and refusal to give in. It’s a good job too, otherwise we would be in even bigger trouble. So the half ended 6 – 5 in our favour. OK fair enough we might not get the five pointer, but 4 might still be enough.
Within 9 minutes of the restart, all the blind optimism is gone. Sarries have carved through our midfield twice, for two very good tries, and suddenly we are 6 – 17 down. As always, when the auld horse has bolted we made a valliant attempt at shutting the stable door, and frankly for the remainder of the match we played pretty well. Bish got a good try to get it back to 11 – 17, but try as we might, there was not really an way through the Sarries defence.
I personally am, infuriated by our gameplan. Take contact, ruck, recycle, don’t commit too many forwards, then spin the quick ball and go through the space created. To execute this properly, you rely on the referee to stop the defenders from slowing the ball. On Saturday, as in every other game this season, the referee (on this occasion Mr. Pearson) did no such thing. Gary Gold said the performance was not good enough. I agree, and I have to say that IMHO because of his insistence on carrying on with this SAH gameplan, when we have NH referees is naïve, and frankly not good enough.
At this point, I lost interest in the game, and unfortunately cannot even tell you the final score. However, the Irish support (nearly 10K with less than 500 Sarries) did not give in, and at the end, gave praise to the two greats who will no longer wear the Irish colours. Good luck O’Sheas, good luck Naka, you have both brought us great excitement, and we wish you all the best.
Afterwards it was off for a Curry and then to the Allied Arms to watch the ferrets.
Eek the Weeble a shoe in for MOTM!!!!!!
I just hope that Gary’s drawing board has some magic in it, and I also hope that Conors enigmatic smile means he really does have some magic signings for us, because on this performance, a small improvement will not be enough
On a day when all our rivals for the Wildcard slots had tough away games, while we had a supposedly easy home game, and every chance of picking up the points required, to give it one final lash, and try to get into the Heineken cup.
Those damned Fez heads didn’t read the script though, they put in a spirited and imaginitive performance, and Gave us a cameo from Mr. Bailey, who was in this writers opinion the best centre threequarter seen on this ground this season. At the end we found out that no one else had read the scripts left in the back of the Twickenham taxi either, as Tigs and Sale won, and Quins got the BP they needed, which rendered even a 5 point win by us, useless.
Ah well, it was a nice dream while it lasted.
So the game.
It started off bright enough, in as much as Sarries were making even more mistakes than us, (one of the Sarries players told me afterwards that the ball was like a bar of soap all game). But both sides were dropping passes, and almost every move ended in a knock on. Our scrum looked solid enough, but on many occasions, O’Sheas picked and went, and just turned the won ball over on the gainline. (Good luck for the future Chris, but today, it was surely only sentiment that kept the big Murph on the bench).
Anyway, in the early exchanges, the only two phases that didn’t end with errors, ended with penalties to us, both long range, both dead straight by tofty, 6- 0 to us.
The game struggled from phase to phase with Sarries becoming more and more dangerous, eventually in the 29th Minute, it all came to life a bit, Sarries kicked a penalty to the corner, easily won the lineout, and even more easily got the drive on for the try.
After this we were basically under the cosh for the rest of the half. From sarries next attack, Rob Hoadley was carded for killing the ball in a ruck, and the remainder of the half was spent with backs to the wall defence. Somehow we kept them out. The most creditable quality of this team remains dogged defence, and refusal to give in. It’s a good job too, otherwise we would be in even bigger trouble. So the half ended 6 – 5 in our favour. OK fair enough we might not get the five pointer, but 4 might still be enough.
Within 9 minutes of the restart, all the blind optimism is gone. Sarries have carved through our midfield twice, for two very good tries, and suddenly we are 6 – 17 down. As always, when the auld horse has bolted we made a valliant attempt at shutting the stable door, and frankly for the remainder of the match we played pretty well. Bish got a good try to get it back to 11 – 17, but try as we might, there was not really an way through the Sarries defence.
I personally am, infuriated by our gameplan. Take contact, ruck, recycle, don’t commit too many forwards, then spin the quick ball and go through the space created. To execute this properly, you rely on the referee to stop the defenders from slowing the ball. On Saturday, as in every other game this season, the referee (on this occasion Mr. Pearson) did no such thing. Gary Gold said the performance was not good enough. I agree, and I have to say that IMHO because of his insistence on carrying on with this SAH gameplan, when we have NH referees is naïve, and frankly not good enough.
At this point, I lost interest in the game, and unfortunately cannot even tell you the final score. However, the Irish support (nearly 10K with less than 500 Sarries) did not give in, and at the end, gave praise to the two greats who will no longer wear the Irish colours. Good luck O’Sheas, good luck Naka, you have both brought us great excitement, and we wish you all the best.
Afterwards it was off for a Curry and then to the Allied Arms to watch the ferrets.
Eek the Weeble a shoe in for MOTM!!!!!!
I just hope that Gary’s drawing board has some magic in it, and I also hope that Conors enigmatic smile means he really does have some magic signings for us, because on this performance, a small improvement will not be enough
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