Saturday v Newport

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marshomano
Posts: 125
Joined: 10 Mar 2016 15:48

Saturday v Newport

Post by marshomano »

Cracking looking squad.

Here’s our team and bench for Saturday’s first Indigo Group Premiership match against Newport. The kick off at ECP is 5:30pm.

1) Luke Garrett
2) Joe Franchi
3) Rob Sevenoaks
4) Lance Randall
5) Ashley Sweet
6) Dan Hill
7) Cameron Regan
8) Lewis Young
9) Matthew Flanagan
10) Ethan Phillips
11) Dafydd Thomas
12) Dai Langdon
13) Dom Franchi
14) Paul King
15) Dan Haymond

16) Ross Jones
17) Rhys Francis
18) Morgan Davies
19) Benji Hoppe
20) David Rubasniak
21) Sam Ireland
22) Joe Goodchild
23) Euan Rosser
String
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Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by String »

Well that was frustrating.

We lacked pace out wide, good come back second half but ultimately lost to a an utterly atrocious refereeing decision.
How a penalty to us and a card to them can turn into a penalty try to them and a card to us despite the officials informing the referee is a mystery.

Also, having proven he's willing to give penalty tries seeming somewhat reluctant to do so in the second half with multiple scrum 5 penalties is also mysterious.

We've got things to work on for sure but might come out better with a referee who has more integrity than Donald Trump at a press conference.

Scrum - no idea. Complete lottery at times.
Lineout - messy. Lots of suspicious gap closing going on.
Not nearly streetwise enough.
Quite a few mistakes to gift scores, the first was a simple lack of pace, 2nd a charged down kick and so on. Scrappy but its the first game.

Not too bad to start, we can improve. but to lose a game by a margin from a ludicrous decision like that is galling. Especially against a team who have done so much damage to us and welsh rugby in general as n*****t.
jadegoodiesfridge
Posts: 488
Joined: 02 Apr 2009 16:43

Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by jadegoodiesfridge »

Was going to raise a few issues about last night's game ,but String highlighted most of them.The penalty try debate will rumble on until Saturday,but it has to be said had Ben Whitehouse awarded us a penalty try with those series of scrums illegally stopped on their line( yes ! I think he should have ) then that would have brought the score to 20-29 with 10 minutes left.Would the outcome been any different ,we'll never know.But lessons learned. Newport 's team looked very familiar,they seemingly have had the same team for the last 4 years now ,and it showed against an Ebbw side spattered with new faces.The first half it appeared we were chasing shadows ,and at half time a thumping was on the cards.Obviously something had to change,and putting Dai at 10 and Kingy at centre with Goodchild on the wing seemed to do the trick.We looked far more direct and we had more gas on the wing.With us being so out of sorts a bonus point can't be sniffed at,Good effort in the second half.Sadly ,some who attended the game later suggested that we should offload Ethan Phillips,seemingly laying all the blame on him Ethan's not stupid.He knows that stepping up from 1 east to premiership is a huge step ,but full credit to Ethan for rising to the challenge.Let's get behind the boy,He's only played 40 minutes for Chrissakes ! As for another new recruit,I thought Dan Hill was awesome,but Cammie deserved MOM.Oh well ! on to the next game.
String
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Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by String »

try with those series of scrums illegally stopped on their line( yes ! I think he should have ) then that would have brought the score to 20-29 with 10 minutes left.
The main issue with the non penalty try and series of penalties is how much match time it wasted. Yes we eventually got something out of it (having eventually lost a scrum after the series of penalties) but on my watch the whole process wasted about 8 minutes of game time.
Given how much pressure we were applying at that time, 8 mins or so game time extra means we could really have pushed at the end to get something.

No question taking the 3 at the end to get within 7 points was the correct decision as by that time we couldn't win but had a penalty try have come sooner we'd have had a lot longer to work something, especially as they'd have been down a man as well from it.
If we were within a score against a 14 man opposition with 6-8 minutes remaining there was more than a chance of getting something out of the game.

(That and just the complete lack of consistency from the alleged referee throughout).

Frustrating game where yes we have work to do without doubt but the teams were fairly evenly matched and the outcome decided by 2 specific refereeing decisions.
viewfromthestand
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Joined: 31 Dec 2013 16:08

Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by viewfromthestand »

Agree on all points raised , I think we learned some lessons yesterday. Newport out nigggled us .There were some cynical fouls around the game and certainly some stuff going on off the ball. Thought Ben Whitehouse was poor. Definately , did not ref that passage of scrums very well. I m not sure a penalty try was the correct call but it had to be a consideration. We did nt get it so , no sour grapes from me.
One area of play I thought Ben refereed particularly badly was the ruck . He was allowing both teams to hold on to the ball far to long whilst on the ground. He allowed players up the side of every situation. he allowed people to come over the top and play the scrum half . I lost count of the number of times that our scrum half got dragged in to the ruck whilst waiting for the ball to emerge from the darkest depths.
We will settle down in a game or two and then we will be ok . We know it s going to be a tough season. Stay behind our boys and you won t be disappointed .
String
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Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by String »

. He was allowing both teams to hold on to the ball far to long whilst on the ground
One thing i would say here, although no attempt to defend him (i thought he was utterly atrocious) but that seems to be a general interpretation at all levels now.
Players all now seem to get 1 free "hold and resist" before it starts getting called. You see it from the lowest leagues to highest international games. Its frustrating as it prevents legal turnovers and hugely favours the attacking team but Whitehouse did seem to just be doing what everyone else does in that respect.
Its extremely unlikely for the first legal challenger or the actual tackler back on his feet to win the ball due to it.

(Im far more annoyed with his ignoring of flagged up foul play to give the penalty try in the first half than us not getting one in the second half. But again, absolutely no consistency from him).
chris
Posts: 770
Joined: 10 Dec 2005 19:13

Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by chris »

I thought we played poorly. Whilst it was good to see us come back into the game late on, in reality we gave ourselves too much to do, so can have no complaints.

We persisted with the pick and go around the corner tactic for huge swathes of the game. From my perspective that made it pretty easy for Newport to defend against us - as they knew exactly what we were going to do!

Joe Goodchild looked sharp when he came on and Cammy gave it everything, but we weren’t good enough yesterday and will need to step it up over the next few weeks.

One really strange call from us was when the ref penalised Newport three times at the scrum 5m out from their line, appeared to give them a final warning and yet we kicked for the corner, got turned over and lost field possession - surely another scrum would have made more sense and could have made the difference.

No complaints with the result, pack toughed it out, but backs looked flat. Correct call to kick the penalty at the end and take the losing bonus point. Time to re-group, but plenty to work on.
Malpas69
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Location: Ebbw Vale exile living in N*****t

Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by Malpas69 »

Positives and Negatives from yesterday's game...

Firstly, the negatives. When you compare the back play from the two sides, it was like comparing apples with bananas - Newport looked really fluid and clinical behind the scrum, got behind us on numerous occasions and almost looked like they had more players on the pitch than us with the number of overlaps they created. John Morris had a good game at outside centre for them and I thought that their fullback, David Richards was superb (such pace and such quick feet). Our back play on the other hand (certainly for most of the game) was ponderous and pretty non-existent, we just continued to crash it up the middle, which was totally ineffective.

Our tactics appeared to just be - go through the phases and pass it to the next forward who was standing still next to the ruck. We had no-one running onto the ball or taking the ball up at pace and were playing one man rugby, which the Newport defence simply lapped up all day. I have no problem with the forwards taking up the ball, but you watch other teams (from Premiership to International) and they form a 'pod' with the ball carrier, running onto the ball and being supported by players on either shoulder (effectively a three-man 'wedge')to generate quick ruck ball. I lost count of the number of times our scrum half passed the ball to a forward who was standing still.

Now the positives. I thought that our set-piece was pretty solid against what was (and always is) a big Newport pack. I hope that Ashley's injury is not too serious as we have a dearth of cover in the second row. When other teams make replacements, they always seem to bring on bigger forwards, whereas we always seem to bring on smaller forwards. We simply cannot expect to make it through the season with Ashley and Lance in the second row and Dan Hill as cover. It will only take a few injuries and we will be in deep doo-doo. We have to get/find another second row from somewhere.

I thought that Dawid Rubasniak was superb when he came on and despite only being on the pitch for around 25-30 minutes, he was definitely my man of the match - he was absolutely everywhere, carrying ball, making turnovers - I thought that he was briliant and has to start in my opinion. We did look better organised when Dai Langdon moved to outside half, Paul King moved into the centre and Joe Goodchild onto the wing. To get from our own 22 up to their 5m line to earn that penalty that got us that losing bonus point was a tremendous effort (and that bonus point might prove to be invaluable at the end of the season).

It was great to see so many sponsor's boards around the ground and even better to see that most players (who started) in the programme are sponsored - that is a terrific achievement (well done to all those involved). You cannot fault the effort of any of the players yesterday, they gave their all (as gaining that bonus point proved), but there are only eleven home games this year and we cannot really afford to lose many and that is now one from one. We have to accept that (sadly), we are going to be down the bottom half of the league this year scrapping for survival (it pains me to say that), so every point is absolutely vital.

I think that if we are going to have any chance of staying up, then we are going to require significant help/assistance from the Dragons and it was great to read about our allocation on the website. The quicker that we get that level of support, the better as we are definitely lacking in a few key positions (that is clear for everyone to see). Before I get 'shot down', I know that that was only the first game of the season and it is not all 'doom and gloom', but we simply cannot afford to be 'cast adrift', especially with a tough run of league games (Merthyr, Pontypridd and Llandovery) coming up next.
Crime in multi-storey car parks - that is just wrong on so many different levels!!
Eye Jay
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Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by Eye Jay »

Malpas69 wrote: 08 Sep 2019 20:40 Positives and Negatives from yesterday's game...

Firstly, the negatives. When you compare the back play from the two sides, it was like comparing apples with bananas - Newport looked really fluid and clinical behind the scrum, got behind us on numerous occasions and almost looked like they had more players on the pitch than us with the number of overlaps they created. John Morris had a good game at outside centre for them and I thought that their fullback, David Richards was superb (such pace and such quick feet). Our back play on the other hand (certainly for most of the game) was ponderous and pretty non-existent, we just continued to crash it up the middle, which was totally ineffective.

Our tactics appeared to just be - go through the phases and pass it to the next forward who was standing still next to the ruck. We had no-one running onto the ball or taking the ball up at pace and were playing one man rugby, which the Newport defence simply lapped up all day. I have no problem with the forwards taking up the ball, but you watch other teams (from Premiership to International) and they form a 'pod' with the ball carrier, running onto the ball and being supported by players on either shoulder (effectively a three-man 'wedge')to generate quick ruck ball. I lost count of the number of times our scrum half passed the ball to a forward who was standing still.

Now the positives. I thought that our set-piece was pretty solid against what was (and always is) a big Newport pack. I hope that Ashley's injury is not too serious as we have a dearth of cover in the second row. When other teams make replacements, they always seem to bring on bigger forwards, whereas we always seem to bring on smaller forwards. We simply cannot expect to make it through the season with Ashley and Lance in the second row and Dan Hill as cover. It will only take a few injuries and we will be in deep doo-doo. We have to get/find another second row from somewhere.

I thought that Dawid Rubasniak was superb when he came on and despite only being on the pitch for around 25-30 minutes, he was definitely my man of the match - he was absolutely everywhere, carrying ball, making turnovers - I thought that he was briliant and has to start in my opinion. We did look better organised when Dai Langdon moved to outside half, Paul King moved into the centre and Joe Goodchild onto the wing. To get from our own 22 up to their 5m line to earn that penalty that got us that losing bonus point was a tremendous effort (and that bonus point might prove to be invaluable at the end of the season).

It was great to see so many sponsor's boards around the ground and even better to see that most players (who started) in the programme are sponsored - that is a terrific achievement (well done to all those involved). You cannot fault the effort of any of the players yesterday, they gave their all (as gaining that bonus point proved), but there are only eleven home games this year and we cannot really afford to lose many and that is now one from one. We have to accept that (sadly), we are going to be down the bottom half of the league this year scrapping for survival (it pains me to say that), so every point is absolutely vital.

I think that if we are going to have any chance of staying up, then we are going to require significant help/assistance from the Dragons and it was great to read about our allocation on the website. The quicker that we get that level of support, the better as we are definitely lacking in a few key positions (that is clear for everyone to see). Before I get 'shot down', I know that that was only the first game of the season and it is not all 'doom and gloom', but we simply cannot afford to be 'cast adrift', especially with a tough run of league games (Merthyr, Pontypridd and Llandovery) coming up next.
Great post, agree 100%, so no need to replicate.

I will, however, emphasise the positive point about how grateful we are to those who put in the work behind the scenes to ensure that the ground was looking so good and with plenty of advertising boards.
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marshomano
Posts: 125
Joined: 10 Mar 2016 15:48

Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by marshomano »

Malpas69 wrote: 08 Sep 2019 20:40 We have to accept that (sadly), we are going to be down the bottom half of the league this year scrapping for survival (it pains me to say that), so every point is absolutely vital.
I think we still are too good to be scrapping down the bottom of the table, dont get me wrong i cant see us winning it, but i think we should just about be okay

Pre season against BSE we looked well drilled, even with the new faces. Saturday, we only lost by 6 points, and along with the contentious refereeing decision that gifted newport the penalty try, we also gave them the charge down. So for all our lack of pace and misadventure, we could have and potentially should have won that game. Agreeing with the write up on the site, another 5 minutes and we would have won that game. We haven't become a bad side overnight, but with Merthyr losing, Ponty loosing, i think this league is going to be ultra competitive this year, but i cant see us going down
david brown
Posts: 335
Joined: 14 Nov 2011 15:54

Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by david brown »

Well done MALPAS on an excellent appraisal .Fully support all you have stated ,covering the concerns of a great many supporters.
Phillip Grey
Posts: 156
Joined: 17 Oct 2009 23:16
Location: Monmouth

Re: Saturday v Newport

Post by Phillip Grey »

Good evening, I was a little worried after the first half of rugby but then encouraged by the second half display and endeavours.

Think we just looked a little nervous and shell shocked, I'm positive that will come and we will see game by game improvements.

The depth is a little worrying as mentioned, if Ash gets sidelined (as we saw last year) our set piece goes to pot and we don't have another old head to go in and steady the ship.
Someone like a Denver or Huddy that has been there and done it would be good, even if it was just off the bench!

Outside half is another one, Ethan seems like a good prospect and I'm looking forward to seeing him develop and hopefully enjoy a long career here. But it looks like he's inexperienced at this level, and going to take a bit of time to build up. Not only that be he's our only player in that position (unless i've missed someone in the signings). You cant expect him to play every minute of the season either? Its such a critical position, how many games did Rhys win for us last season through his kicking. We seem to have an abundance of players in some positions, yet very thin on the ground in others

I imagine its too late now anyway for signings so we have what we have, got some tough games coming up with Merthyr, Llandovery, Ponty next up in the league.

When all is said and done, totally trust and have faith in Greg and the team and will be there come rain, snow, high water....etc etc supporting.
One Smart Fellow, He Felt Smart
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