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SACS 1st XV V Stannies [ISA R5: 30/07/2011]
The big focus for this game was to improve our defensive performance, and we did. Well done. We got into the defensive line quickly, stopped following the ball and running to rucks, we numbered up well and moved up off the line and we had a high percentage of success rate in the tackles. Having said that they still scored 3 tries, the driving lineout was very hard to defend but we must improve in this area by sacking opponents or winning the shove and splitting their maul. Their last try was unlucky for us but we need to scramble better. Their second try was the disappointing one, as it was just after we scored and we were looking dominant.
We failed to move forward off the defensive line and put the man on the deck and they scored without sustaining any pressure at all. Normally if we were to let our opponents in for 3 tries, I would back our ability to score points to come up with more than 4 tries and hence win the game. But that didn’t happen as we disrespected the ball and gave away possession countless times. We butchered overlaps, threw passes at our mates feet, threw passes over the sideline, got greedy near the line, pushed low percentage passes in the tackle, had weak ball security when going to ground, gave away stupid penalties in attacking zones, we rarely held the ball for 3 phases, in general our discipline in attack sucked and for this reason we did not deserve to win the game.
We failed to move forward off the defensive line and put the man on the deck and they scored without sustaining any pressure at all. Normally if we were to let our opponents in for 3 tries, I would back our ability to score points to come up with more than 4 tries and hence win the game. But that didn’t happen as we disrespected the ball and gave away possession countless times. We butchered overlaps, threw passes at our mates feet, threw passes over the sideline, got greedy near the line, pushed low percentage passes in the tackle, had weak ball security when going to ground, gave away stupid penalties in attacking zones, we rarely held the ball for 3 phases, in general our discipline in attack sucked and for this reason we did not deserve to win the game.
The Extra Terrestrial was a consistent threat to the opponent’s defensive line and scored a great solo try to get us back into the game, more often than not he breaks through the tackle, so we need more people supporting him, particularly the back 3. Bear Grylls had a stormer of a game, carrying the ball strongly and tackling til exhaustion, more of that next week please. We need to train hard this week to fix these issues prior to this week’s game, and then rip in.
FOCUS: Be disciplined in attack, maintain possession at all costs. Defensive communication and line speed.
FOCUS: Be disciplined in attack, maintain possession at all costs. Defensive communication and line speed.
SACS 5 (Tries: Ed Takau) lost to STANNIES 19
Players player: Cal McGrath
Man of the match points: 3 – Ed Takau, 2 – Brendan Stephenson, 1 point – Cal McGrath
--"The Word" from: Coach Michniewicz--
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SACS 1st XV v Oakhill [ISA R2: 04/06/2011]
“Highs and Lows”
Well, what a difference a week makes. In the initial stages of the game, I thought that we were intimidated by Oakhill, not by the team that we were playing but by the thought of playing them. Oakhill have an aura of invincibility about them that had us stunned and as a result we made some incredibly poor decisions. Decisions to kick when we were told not to, decisions to pass the ball wide when we were told not to, decisions to run alone when we were told not to, all of these played right into the hands of our fast opponents and it seemed they were running in tries at will. Whilst it is great to be energetic, enthusiastic, courageous, tough etc, it all means nothing if you fail to use your brain. This is clearly evident as we let them score off a minus express that we had spoken about all week because we failed to use our it.
From the second half kick-off, 10 of our 14 players that were on the field all charged at the ball receiver, he passes it wide and has got outside nearly the whole team, they score without a hand being laid on them. Dumb, dumb, dumb. We looked good for a small patch of the first half, we held the ball, held the ball, held the ball, then no surprise we got the penalties. It’s no good doing this for 5 minutes you must do it for 35 minutes. Have a rest, and then do it for another 35 minutes. At half time you were yelled at and deserved to be yelled at because you did not follow basic instructions, and it hurt us. There is no point in having a coach to come up with a plan to beat the opposition, train to that plan all week then go out onto the field and do something totally different.
In future, please follow the instructions you are given.
After 5 minutes in the second half when we had 15 back on the field, we did exactly what we were told to. We ran in numbers, we held the ball in all parts of the field, we controlled possession, we won penalties, we were reactive in defence and we dominated the opposition for 30 of the 35 minutes of the second half. Whilst we scored one try, we should have scored a couple more but we ran out of patience and made mistakes.
We moved the ball 30m -40m down the field to 5m out on many occasions but unfortunately we had trouble with the last 5m.
To their credit, Oakhill’s defence was excellent but not perfect. Excellent defences require greater patience on our behalf and eventually they will crack.
Next up we play St. Gregory’s, this is an enormous game for many reasons. Let’s enjoy Tuesday afternoon light training and then train hard over the next 3 sessions, be on time, minds switched on and enthusiastic.
"We Not me"
SACS 5 (Tries: Theo Karantzias) loss to OAKHILL 38
Players player: Samuela Felemi and Ryan Lawson
Man of the match points: 2 points – Samuela Felemi, 1 point - Ryan Lawson, Tom de Jersey, Zac Simpson and Filia Talanoa
--"The Word" from: Coach Michniewicz--
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SACS 1st XV v St Patrick's [ISA R1: 28/05/2011]
For many, many years St Andrew's rugby teams have been travelling to St Pat's and only once have they tasted victory. Now, you can make that twice. Anything less than our best performance of the year wouldn’t have been enough to beat Pat's, who are always very passionate at their home ground. We stood up and we produced our best defensive effort of the year by a long way. Having said that, there is still much improving to do if we are to challenge Oakhill in the upcoming weekend, but there is no doubt that we are capable.
Running up hill into the wind in the first half, a strong defensive performance was always going to be the key. We were reacting faster and numbering up better than we have done in any other games, and whilst we missed a few 1 on 1 tackles, we were able to recover because of our enthusiasm to stay hungry on the inside and cover. Our first try came when a clever shift in direction put the Torpedo in space and the Pat's defenders didn’t want to know about it, the Torpedo almost ran out of the stadium before deciding to put the ball down. For the most part the remainder of the half was spent in our half and in our 22m zone. We communicated well in defence, were strong on 3 points on our line and scrambled well whenever a line break was made. We also maintained our discipline, only conceding 4 penalties in the whole half. Nails made some big plays in defence, whacking the opposition, pilfering the ball, kicking out of trouble, inspirational stuff. Abe Simpson and Chicken Legs de Jersey were everywhere, getting through a mountain of work and it was Abe who received the kick off for the second half as he did so well all day. Our first try of the second half came after Henry Lawson returned a kick, 9 phases later and after some strong running from the Torpedo, Henry and Nails, the Special Sauce dived through a swarm of bodies for a meat pie. We were unable to clear from the kick off and ensuing plays and a string of penalties allowed St Pats to hit back with a try out wide. Our defence was becoming slower to move up off the defensive line and this was giving them too much space, if we are to stop the attacking abilities of Oakhill then we must move up fast, put pressure on them and then slow your feet down, little steps into contact. Move up as one.
The Hyphen grabbed a specky from the kick off and Bear Grylls took off down the sideline, ET took the ball up hard as did his centre partner Nails, The Torpedo ran off ET’s hip and dived over for his second prize of the day. It was great to see us not affected by their try and strike back straight away, a sign of a good team. We put more pressure on ourselves conceding plenty of penalties, a total of 10 in the second half, and our line speed was really poor, often we stood and waited for them to run at us, this enabled Pat's to go over again and narrow the gap to 19 – 14. Bear Grylls left the field after a heavy knock and on came Bobby Bauchet. Once again, we were able to hit back within a couple of minutes with slick hands from Apollo the Greek God finding his captain, who burrowed over in the corner, taking the score to 24-14. The last ten minutes of the game was a great test of character, which we passed with flying colours and there was some inspirational individual efforts that continued to lift team mates, Chicken Legs and Apollo with great turnovers, Henry and Nails with some crunching hits.
When the final whistle went, we went up as one. The victory stank of “We not me”. We demonstrated belief, guts, enthusiasm, passion, pride, courage and skill. Oakhill will be much, much better than St Pat's in all aspects of the game and we must rise to the challenge. Believe.
Running up hill into the wind in the first half, a strong defensive performance was always going to be the key. We were reacting faster and numbering up better than we have done in any other games, and whilst we missed a few 1 on 1 tackles, we were able to recover because of our enthusiasm to stay hungry on the inside and cover. Our first try came when a clever shift in direction put the Torpedo in space and the Pat's defenders didn’t want to know about it, the Torpedo almost ran out of the stadium before deciding to put the ball down. For the most part the remainder of the half was spent in our half and in our 22m zone. We communicated well in defence, were strong on 3 points on our line and scrambled well whenever a line break was made. We also maintained our discipline, only conceding 4 penalties in the whole half. Nails made some big plays in defence, whacking the opposition, pilfering the ball, kicking out of trouble, inspirational stuff. Abe Simpson and Chicken Legs de Jersey were everywhere, getting through a mountain of work and it was Abe who received the kick off for the second half as he did so well all day. Our first try of the second half came after Henry Lawson returned a kick, 9 phases later and after some strong running from the Torpedo, Henry and Nails, the Special Sauce dived through a swarm of bodies for a meat pie. We were unable to clear from the kick off and ensuing plays and a string of penalties allowed St Pats to hit back with a try out wide. Our defence was becoming slower to move up off the defensive line and this was giving them too much space, if we are to stop the attacking abilities of Oakhill then we must move up fast, put pressure on them and then slow your feet down, little steps into contact. Move up as one.
The Hyphen grabbed a specky from the kick off and Bear Grylls took off down the sideline, ET took the ball up hard as did his centre partner Nails, The Torpedo ran off ET’s hip and dived over for his second prize of the day. It was great to see us not affected by their try and strike back straight away, a sign of a good team. We put more pressure on ourselves conceding plenty of penalties, a total of 10 in the second half, and our line speed was really poor, often we stood and waited for them to run at us, this enabled Pat's to go over again and narrow the gap to 19 – 14. Bear Grylls left the field after a heavy knock and on came Bobby Bauchet. Once again, we were able to hit back within a couple of minutes with slick hands from Apollo the Greek God finding his captain, who burrowed over in the corner, taking the score to 24-14. The last ten minutes of the game was a great test of character, which we passed with flying colours and there was some inspirational individual efforts that continued to lift team mates, Chicken Legs and Apollo with great turnovers, Henry and Nails with some crunching hits.
When the final whistle went, we went up as one. The victory stank of “We not me”. We demonstrated belief, guts, enthusiasm, passion, pride, courage and skill. Oakhill will be much, much better than St Pat's in all aspects of the game and we must rise to the challenge. Believe.
SACS 24 (Tries: Filia Talanoa 2, Ed Takau, Hugh Polkinghorne) loss to PAT'S 14
Players player: Samuela Felemi
Man of the match points: 3points - Samuela Felemi, 1 point - Ed Takau, Tom de Jersey and Zac Simpson
--"The Word" from: Coach Michniewicz--
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SACS 1st XV v St Pius [Trial: 21/05/2011]
This game was a big test for us after 2 weeks of scoring plenty of tries. We were aware that there was going to be an increased intensity and passion but unfortunately when the going got tough in the latter stages of the game we were unable to hang in. We dominated the early stages of the game and it didn't take long before a well constructed driving maul had Stu 'Mealamu' opening the scoring.
The domination continued because we maintained our discipline and we were enthusiastic in defence. A couple of times Pius broke through but we scrambled well and there were a couple of try savers from Apollo and Bart Simpson. Unfortunately Cal the Pigeon got injured an had to come from the field. Back in the attacking zone, Zeus took the ball hard to the line and weaved his way through for a great try. We missed a few more opportunities in attack and really could have put the game out of reach by half time but we lacked patience in attack and tuned the ball over deep in the opponents 22m on too many occasions. This is absolutely unacceptable.
In the ISA competition you must take every opportunity you get in the opposition 22m and you must be prepared to hold the ball for phase after phase after phase until the opposition cracks. At the moment we attack until we run out of patience or somebody goes by themselves and we turn the ball over. Without threatening our line, Pius walked over from outside the 22m, this is what happens when we don't number up in defence and props get stuck defending out wide. Everyone needs to react faster, be aware of where the opposition players are as well as where the ball is. On the weekend we were more concerned about where the ball was and this enabled them to catch us short on numerous occasions. We started strongly in the second half and scored an absolute ripper of a try to Callum 'Dudley' Moore. The longer the half went on the more cracks started to appear in our defence. This game has hopefully taught us some valuable lessons.
SACS 15 (Tries: Callum Moore, Theo Karantzias, Stu Takau) loss to PIUS 25
Players player: Jono Paproulas
Man of the match points: 2 points - Ed Takau, 1 point - Jono Paparoulas, Oliver Hui, Zac Simpson, Theo Karantzias
--"The Word" from: Coach Michniewicz--
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SACS 1st XV v Sydney Boys High [Trial: 14/05/2011]
