Newport

[Halftime Pint]

Well... According to the Guardian's sport supplement fixture list for the weekend; it's East Newport Vs Ebbw Vale. They way we're playing, am somewhat thankful it's not the whole of Newport we are facing

[abergavenny plodder]

Reminds me of the wags who commented when Wales lost to West Samoa in the 1991 World Cup, it's just as well we weren't,t playing the whole of Samoa !

[Halftime Pint]

To be honest with you, the Samoa comment is what gave me the idea

[Phillip Grey]

Very good chaps, that did make me chuckle!

Here's hoping for a good win, not sure if i'll be there as yet as waiting to find out my transport arrangements but if not shall be there in spirit.

[Topspectator]

Any news on team ?

[html junkie]

Any news on team ?

https://www.evrfc.co.uk/results/nov-18t ... ebbw-vale/

[Topspectator]

Ross Jones injured ? i thought he had a powerful game up front and give Cornock a tough time

[chris]

Really looking forward to the game later.

Possibly a bit of blind optimism here, but I feel like we might be able to do something today. Fingers crossed.

[chris]

Really looking forward to the game later.

Possibly a bit of blind optimism here, but I feel like we might be able to do something today. Fingers crossed.

Oh dear... blind optimism it was then. Absolutely shambolic and comprehensively dismantled by a very average Newport side. Not sure where we go from here really.

[Phillip Grey]

Didn’t go to the match today as had a family lunch to attend.

Was about to ask for supporters thoughts on the performance as have seen the score.

[Topspectator]

Where do you start we have a team so low in confidence our body language going out onto the pitch is beyond belief. We seem to not play for each other, there are players that look deflated and clueless. The worrying thing for me is we talk prior to the game about how many we will lose by. Combinations are simply not working why this cant be seen by the men who pick the squad, i believe in the players but have no respect for the men tearing our great club apart time to give Neil Edwards and Lee Jarvis a call we need a no nonsense approach.

[Malpas69]

I'm afraid that it was "same old, same old... " and we made a very average Newport side look like world beaters. Once again, we were caught defending way too narrow and they scored out wide (far too easily) on numerous occasions. Again, the team selection baffled me - we all know that Newport always have a big, robust pack, so what do we do, we pick a small, light back row with (essentially) three number sevens and get mullered in the scrums from which Newport got many penalties and easy field positions. Pretty much our only attacking weapon this year has been our scrum, and by picking such a small, light back row, that particular strength was taken away from us.

We are very limited behind, so why don't we go back to what served us so well when we were in the Championship - why don't we pick a big pack and try and take teams on up front? Limited, yes, but I am afraid that is all that we have at the moment. We need to pick a big back row (the likes of Rhys Clarke, Jonathan Davies, Josh Jacas, Kristian Parker) and I'm afraid to say that we can only afford to carry one of the players who started in the back row today (two if we count cover off the bench). If we had a massive front five and played a fast expansive game, then fair enough, play a quicker back row, but I'm afraid that we have neither a massive front five nor play a fast expansive game! Trying to suffocate other teams up front is the only chance that we have to win games in my opinion, as we offer very little behind the scrum.

That said, there were flashes of mediocrity this afternoon amongst all the doom and gloom, but again, our discipline let us down and once again we found ourselves down to thirteen men for a period of time (we should be used to it by now). It was nice to see Will Holley have some game time and interesting to see Andy Evans (who started the season playing for us, but obviously discarded) coming on as a replacement wing late on in the game for Newport. Also, the Newport coaches have managed to get a lot more out of Joe Bartlett than ours ever did and one off load that he made resulted in a Newport try.

[chris]

Spot on regarding the back row selection. Having seen the lineup I had assumed that we would be battling hard at the breakdown (hence picking three 7's), yet we rarely competed for ball and turned very little (if anything) over... confusing.

I also continue to be baffled by Jon Davies's non-selection. He needs a run of games at 8 to get himself firing again as all of this bit-part stuff can't be doing him any good. On current form I would then pick Cam plus one other to make up the remainder of the backrow.

Our backs look clueless at the moment. We just shuffle the ball left to right and right to left, so opponents just drift and shut our space down. We're desperately lacking someone to straighten things up in the centre and someone with genuine pace in wide areas to finish things off.

Given our current constraints a simpler gameplan as suggested above may be our only option. I'd also like to see us kick to the corners a bit more and play a bit of territory, as we need to regain some control.

[JohnCoffey]

Not a ground I particularly like visiting & to suffer a result & performance like that is difficult to accept with any grace.
It’s Groundhog day - we've said it all before, & another side has taken a 5-point win bonus off us & we have again come away with zero.
The league doesn’t lie – we are bottom of the east conference, have the worst attacking record in either conference, the worst defensive record in either conference, worst points difference in either conference (& by some margin), the least bonus points in either conference & are the only side in either conference not to have picked up a try bonus – could it be more obvious ?
There is an overwhelming majority of posters on this forum who identify the reason. If you spend time on the bank & listen to those standing there you will know that there is also an overwhelming number of those who don’t post on here who can also tell you the reason. Everyone identifies the coaches & you can see from the body language of decent players that they have identified it as well.
We have been told after every game that the coaches were finding their best team & we would see the benefits in the 2nd half of the conference. Well, the 2nd half has arrived & it is blatantly obvious that far from improving, that we are actually getting worse, much worse !
We have played 11 games, changed the back row in every one of the last 10 games, changed the half backs in each of the last 6 games – selection is clueless.
I still believe the club did a decent job of recruitment in the summer. We complain about a lack of pace out wide yet Andy Evans, who the club recruited in the summer, came on for Newport today – a 7s international, looked good in pre-season & for us in the Heineken 7s. Was he “obviously discarded” or had he had enough of our coaching environment ?
According to guys on the bank, who seem to be very well informed, he may not be the last to jump ship if the coaching set-up is not changed.
We have no game plan so moving to any game plan let alone “a simpler gameplan” would be an improvement.
There is no point in posing the question what are those who post on here doing to help the club – there is nothing wrong with the way the club is being run. We could all volunteer our time but it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference to our results if we retain the same coaches. Unfortunately, they are way out of their depth at this level.

[david brown]

Promised the wife i would refrain from contributing on this site However to see our great club become a laughing stock is truly heart breaking.Game after game ,week after week we show no indication of having tried to erase our continued mistakes.We mix and max our team selection,the players run around looking completely lost ,yet still we plod on being an easy five pointer for just average teams.Surely the coaching staff are aware of all this ?yet nothing is done about it .Honestly believe the door in the LAST CHANCE saloon should be firmly shut enough is ,enough.