Barnhall v Wanderers Match Report.
06/11/2007
VICTORY INTERCEPTED BY BARNHALL
Any chance of attaining our first victory in the AIL 2nd Division was intercepted by a Barnhall side that refused to give up and grabbed the opportunities presented to them, coming out 13-9 victors.
The build-up during the week was all about taking the positives from our match versus Belfast Harlequins and working hard on the areas of our game that cost us the opportunities that we had created.
Unfortunately it was another day of “ifs and buts” with a lot of field position and possession, but not enough patience and points on the board post game to get the result we had desired.
Barnhall were first on the board with a penalty after four minutes and it took until the 33rd minute for David Fitzgerald to match it, after we had spent a lot of time pressuring Barnhall’s line. The quality of some of the ball that we were presenting to the backs and our decision making, coupled with Barnhalls dogged defence, kept us at bay.
Halftime brief was more concentration and intensity on the ball as we were playing more positive rugby but would need to be more clinical to reap the rewards. The light rain that started early match would also be a factor if we didn’t up our collective focus.
We camped ourselves in familiar territory but were punished by the opposition out-half when attempting to spread the ball wide with a very flat defensive line. He intercepted and, with everyone up in attack, had enough of a start to sprint 80 metres for a try under the posts. The conversion took the score to 10-3 after 50minutes. At this time three subs were injected to try and lift our game and Fitzgerald converted a penalty 4 minutes later meaning the win was in our grasp. However, Barnhall knocked over a penalty after 60 minutes giving them a 7 point buffer. A lot of effort was put in but, as had been the case for the prior 60 minutes, the harder we tried the less we were able to implement what we wanted.
With 12 minutes to go Fitzgerald knocked over another penalty but despite the desperation we were denied any further points.
It was very disappointing to depart Barnhall without a victory under the belt but we came away with 1 bonus point to launch our campaign and another harsh lesson of not walking away with “ifs or buts” again.
It is so important that we don’t now fragment under pressure as it’s far too early in this long season and have a huge task against the high flying Highfield on our home patch this weekend.
Positive attitude and concentration on every detail will be needed in order for us to achieve the success that everyone so dearly wants.
Andrew Spraggon
Senior Coach/Director of Rugby
