With the mid-season break almost done and dusted, it’s time to assess the first half of the season as we head toward next Saturday’s resumption against Doncaster Knights here at Ellgia Fields.
So, we caught up with Head Coach Craig Newby for an honest assessment of Blocks 1 and 2 of the Champ thus far…
Here’s Craig:
“We were never probably going to play our best rugby in the first block. We anticipated that, with a new squad, new staff – young, young men. But we had some encouraging performances and picked up a couple of points in the second block. It turns out we played the 1st to the 6th at the top of the table teams and I anticipated a tough block for us. It was, but all our stats both visually and ‘actual-factual’ highlighted that we’re improving in a lot of areas. “We’re still away off the standard that we need to win games but we’re improving, so against that second half of games we’ve got four or five guys in the top five in their position performing well. Jack Doorey-Palmer, Rhys Fulford, Dan Eckersley, Levi Reweti – those four in particular are in the top five in their position and some metrics around carry and tackle, so individually we’re producing some really good stuff. We’ve had. I think – I don’t know the stats on it – but we’ve had four or five guys in the Championship team of the week – so we’ve had a few guys having some big games as well at times.
“I guess the next question is how do we transfer some of that growth to performance in the second half and we’re going to focus solely on the next six games in Block 3. We’re going to throw everything we got at those six. Donny at home is an opportunity for us to get some momentum going and we’re going to throw the kitchen sink and everything we’ve got at them and everyone else in this next block. The key for us is how do we turn moments or periods of play and pressure into points and wins – that’s the million-dollar question for us at the moment. How do we turn some really good execution into consistent execution because you know that’s killing us as well – and turnover at times – so we’ve got lots of work, but we’re going to narrow it down to a couple of areas again because we have to. We can’t just use a scatter-gun approach and we have to be consistent with what we’re doing. Our processes are pretty good but we’re all always willing to learn and adapt and grow and get better so that’s going to continue to happen in this block.
“Rugby is cruel game sometimes – we were pretty close against Nottingham at home and probably were the better team on the day but they had a wee purple patch that you know sort of won it for them. Bedford away – again that one that probably got away on us. Credit to them they’re a great side at home. Caldy away was a weird one because we didn’t start well but we won the second half and probably let that slip. So yeah, those could’ve been three wins. Reflecting on the disappointing ones like Richmond, and Scottish, here, we can’t go on those as much as the fact is that we have to learn and get better from those experiences but yeah, there’s some close ones.
“The second block was pretty difficult. We pushed Worcester for a while but they were too powerful in the end. I guess against Ealing away, despite the score-line at the end, we scored three times which not many sides will do there – so there’s been some really encouraging signs and had we picked up 1,2,3 of those wins, momentum conference is a wonderful thing but we didn’t. So the question is how do we get those two or three in this next block?
“On the playing squad, Sam Asotasi is definitely out for the season. Zac Nearchou is still out till March but he’s progressing well. Jack Boal is back in training after a knee issue, but he’ll be fine so it’s a good addition, back in the front row. Bily Walker‘s back – he missed the last two games of the round. Front row has been an issue for us in the last two games. It probably cost us two games against Coventry and Hartpury – not potentially costing wins but maybe bonus points. This is a long-term project and we’ve been relatively lucky with injuries, I think. Eli Caven, Ethan Thorne – they’ve got a couple of little niggles, shoulder issues, so hopefully they’re available for Doncaster. Charles Robson an interesting one – a new signing for us – he played a little bit against Coventry and then picked up a niggle. He’s a talented, talented man and once he understands what we’re trying to do it’s exciting. But we don’t have a lot of scope for improvement on our squad. We are who we are with what we’ve got.
“Obviously we relied a little bit in the last round on James Pater and Henry Lumley and Tubuna Maka from Saints and Leicester so that relationship is growing for us and we get some really good young talent through, We won’t have access to those guys as much over the next few weeks because of the Prem Cup – but that’s an area that we know we want to utilise as much as we can. We have four guys who’ve worn the shirt in the wider England U20s squad for their 6 Nations, particularly from Northampton, with Oli Scola and Henry and James. We’re a resource for those clubs – we have to be! – and it’s awesome just to see those guys and their talent. When they come here they fully buy in and we don’t give them any excuse not to so, it’s cool to see them. We obviously not going to take much of the credit for the development but we have a part to play so it’d be nice to see them perform at the highest level.”