Mighty thirds dominate at Ramsgreave

Rugby date 02/10/10 home against Hawcoat park score 24 - 0

Hi Guys,

Well what a performance we put on against league new comers Hawcoat it turns out they are what used to be Vickers old team. They travelled well with a couple of subs on their bench and once again it was a hard game, the visitors played a similar game to us and looked a good team with big forwards and quick backs. But even with the 2nd team stripping us of several players we managed again to field 21 players, this excellent support lads lets keep up the effort now as the bad weather starts to dig in. I would like to thank Paul Greenwood, Andy Snape, John Banks, Tom Holden and Dave O'sullivan for stepping up to assist the 2nd xv. Especially Dave O'sullivan who accepted a late call Saturday morning, and all of them helped to secure a victory for the 2's, well done boys.

Back to the thirds performance as I wrote about last week our discipline would be key in this match, with a old friend to the Blackburn club Sean refereeing the game, we new he would not tolerate any back chat. I gave my pre game talk and urged all the lads to think about their discipline, I spelt out the troubles we had been suffering from. And thankfully all of you managed to maintain an excellent discipline throughout the game, this meant that instead of gifting silly penalty's we managed to maintain pressure on our opponents. And shut out a great win with some superb game play, thanks lads and lets keep up the good work on our discipline.

Another aspect that stood out yesterday was our support play especially Mike Doherty doing some excellent work around the park. Paul Schofield also first to every breakdown closely followed by George Pugh. The backs where working well and linking up effortlessly through Nick Archer and Jim Coleman, Richard Bradford. But also all the players geeing each other on Richard Tiny Turner giving me encouragement when I needed it, a good team spirit running through the whole team lets work hard to maintain this level of commitment to each other. All these things are attributed to the hard work you have been putting in at training thanks to Paul Greenwood for his efforts and all yours. We have to work hard now on our fitness towards the end of the game some of us where feeling the efforts we had out in, hard work on our fitness will pay dividends as the season goes on. Training is on Thursday evenings from 7pm till 9pm, we have been experiencing good numbers lets keep up the effort lads.

The forwards where dominant again in the scrum, and once I got my throwing in on target we started to boss the line out with a superb performance from Schoey and Doc. Another aspect we started to do well was driving over the ball when going in to a ruck, good work from Braddy before the game on highlighting this part of the game it meant we didn't concede penalty's at the breakdown. Also there was some good mauling work done during the second half with Braddy ordering the forwards about and getting the maul moving, a useful tactic we should use more often.

Next week we travel to Hutton, don't forget the fancy dress theme of robbers. We now stand second in the league and I am sure Hutton will give us another hard game. They beat league leaders Orrel this week and will be buoyed by this performance, as usual can you let myself or Keith know your availability as soon as possible. Also the weekend after we play Orrel at Ramsgreave, this will also be a hard game so fitness is the priority. I look forward to leading you all again next week lets keep up the good work we have started,

Regards Carlos ( captain ).