LONG TRIP TO LONDON
Once again I am starting this blog after another disappointing loss. At the weekend I thought our defence was pretty good, we completed at a good rate and I thought we were in control of the match for pretty much all of it. Once again though we gave away daft penalties, which let them out of their end of the field and then they scored on the back of it. In fact three of their four tries came after we had conceded penalties late in the tackle count. Like I said I thought we were in control of the game but we just can't seem to put teams away. We have been saying it all season that it is little ten minute spells that have been costing us these close games but I don't think it was even that this week. It was just little individual errors that cost us.
They have quality players in their side and they are quick but I don't think - and their Coach Brian McDermott said as much - they created that many opportunities. I thought they weren't that many created by either side and both teams defended really well. They just took more of their chances than we did. When we were on the front foot mistakes cost us dear. We forced a repeat set and then Semi thought the ball was going out on the full from the drop out - but it didn't and that let them off the hook. We really need to take advantage when we get repeat sets, put teams under the pump and turn those situations into points; which we aren't doing at the moment.
It's very frustrating because we all know we are a much better side than we are showing at the moment. We are all working for each other and the effort's there but not the results and that makes it very tough. Fortunately we get to play Quins again this week, so we have just got to turn it around. It will be strange playing them back to back. I spoke to a couple of their Aussie players after the game and they said it would be like playing an Origin Series; you play a team once and then you play them again the following week. You have seen the video and you know what you are up against. When it's against practically the same set of individuals it's all about motivation. You can go out there, get your head down and get it done. That's what it's like with Origin and hopefully we can turn it around and make it one all.
It gets us a trip away again and we seem to bond pretty well on our travels. The last trip was good, nothing fancy but we enjoy each other's company. Hopefully we get that tight knit group and go out and get the result. We seem to be playing better away from home at the moment so perhaps we should stay in camp for our home games or play all our games away!! We haven't had a good record at home this year but we have done pretty well in London and we aren't going down there expecting to lose. We know we were a good side on the weekend and didn't take our chances and we need to remedy that this week.
I have finally made it to the top of the Tipping Competition!! I had a perfect round last week and I am the new leader after the results were checked. There are a couple of the guys - Tez an Beaver - who have already used their Jokers - that's where you get double points - and they are still very close to the bottom. Tez picked Hull KR to get a perfect round but Beaver picked Cas. After the game they were ribbing Beaver because he's struggling at the bottom!! I am delighted to be at the top and I aim to stay there!
I see the Aussies batted pretty well in their second innings and got a draw out of the Test. It's one down with one to play and some of us are going on Sunday to see the Headingley test. I hope it's a good day and I'll be cheering them on to hopefully level the Series.
We need to get some confidence back in ourselves as we approach the end of the season. WE want to finish the season well for the club, the supporters, ourselves and the Coaching Staff. Although we probably can't make the finals we really want to finish well. We don't play to lose games and we desperately want to show what we are capable of before the season finishes.
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