Wanderers v Greystones Saturday 7th March Merrion Road
There is a saying that sometimes “you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again”. Well this could not be more appropriate than at the moment with the wanderers’ team. Since our game on the 18th October we have won, drawn but more often than not picked up a losing bonus point in our games. We seem to have this self destruct button that more often than not activates itself when we find ourselves in a position to win games, and this was never more evident than on Saturday’s mach against Greystones.
Saturday was a fantastic day for rugby however there was a strong wind blowing towards the clubhouse, we chose to play into the elements in the first half and after the initial onslaught from Greystones we got into our groove and played some fantastic rugby both controlling the possession and the opposition. After some penalty exchanges and a drop goal from James Ritchie, the scores were level at 6 points all coming towards the half time break. We on 2 or 3 occasions got ourselves deep into Greystones territory but unfortunately could not transfer this pressure into points. However just before the break Victor Ball found himself in the outhalf position looked up and saw we had numbers wide and put in a cross field kick which was gathered by his second row partner, Paul Ryan, and at last we had breached their line and James Ritchie slotted the conversion, 13 – 6 Wanderers and everything going according to plan.
The message at half time was that we had to continue to play as we had in the first half, and not to rely on the wind as this would not win us the game, however that it would be difficult for Greystones to win the game from their own 22. I highlighted that the timing of the score just before halftime was critical and the next most important part of this game was the first 10 minutes of the second half. Click goes that self destruct button and within the first 2 minutes of the second half, we made three unforced errors and found ourselves rooted in our 22. This continued to be the story for the second half as Greystones dominated possession and continuously got themselves in positions where they could convert their pressure into points and their outhalf delivered and slowly but surely they chipped away and racked up the points. As a team when we are under pressure we tend to turn the ball over or concede penalties and this was the trend in the second half. The question I ask is how can a team in play so well in the first half roll out in the second half and have no comparison to the team that played in the second half?
Ultimately the book stops with me and we have 4 games to ensure that we maintain our status in Division 2 and it is now clear that there are 5 teams in the drop zone of which we still have to play 2 of them. As with all outcomes the process is our own hands and we will ultimately do whatever it takes to remain in division 2. It is definitely more of a psychological challenge than a physical challenge as we have shown in previous outings what we are capable of playing enough rugby to win matches, however to be consistent throughout the duration of matches and turn these narrow defeats into victories is going to boil down to the mental toughness of myself, the players and the club as a whole to ensure survival.
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