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As important as last week's positive performance versus Wasps was to our collective
mood - in today's match we needed to produce a Win.... And I stress the word - 'needed'....
Not only to improve our position in the Division-1 standings - but to maintain the
'momentum' which we gained last week.
Everyone within the squad felt good about last week's performance, and spirits were
certainly high during this week's training sessions... However, all that aside, we
were still showing a record of 1W-3L, and we hadn't earned a Win in 4 weeks.
We had a solid First-Half last week, and it was important for us duplicate that effort
today. So, it was real lift to us, to get the first score of the match, with a Try
at 8 minutes.... Considering the advantage that we held in Territory and Possession
over the first 20-25 minutes, we should have been able to produce more then one scoring
effort - but there were indeed several 'near misses' during that time period.
In previous Matches, we've had a tendency to give-away points near the end of the
First-half. However, not this week... It was great to see our guys maintain their
focus, and finish-off the First-half with a Try.
And, as sometimes happens in Matches...... Today was a Match full of 'character tests'
for our guys - and I think we passed them all.... At the very least, we certainly
remained 'committed' to our goal - in the face of our ongoing injuries & substitutions,
our Sin-binings; not to mention the increasingly wet weather in the Second-half.
Our injury woes began five minutes into the match; and continued for almost the full
80 - and our reserve players did a tremendous job.... However, when we received two
Yellow cards at the 50:00 minute mark, our guys were still ready for the challenge.
In many ways, I think the 10 minute period of playing with 13 men - won the match
for us.
Yes, we had a 10-0 lead at that point - however the situation forced our guys to
focus, and forced our guys to elevate their game individually.... The UM did manage
to score one Try against us during that time period - but to our credit, we were
able to reply with one Try of our own a few minutes later... And even playing with
13, we didn't appear to be overly vulnerable at any point.
The guys really 'stepped-up' their game; and it was great to see our guys maintain
their composure.
It was unfortunate to have to give-up the late Try to the UM... However, the playing
conditions were so excessively wet by that point; it was sometimes difficult to predict
what was going to happen next.... But, credit goes to the UM in this matter. They
were two scores down with time running-out, and battled right to the end.
So, we are now are sitting at 2W-3L; and it's time get ourselves back to the .500+
mark.
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