Llandovery

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Thoughts on that one?
Worst i've seen us play all season.
Started poorly, woke up a bit.
Second half was awful then woke up the last 6 or 7 minutes again.

Two tries gifted purely because we weren't paying attention. First half stopping to watch a ball go out which then didn't only for them to ground it.
Second half the chargedown whilst under no pressure with everyone aligned was very sloppy. Just like that 12 points thrown away.

Set piece better than i thought - decent scrum and lineout not as bad as it has been.

Got penalised and/or turned over at the ruck many times a direct result of just showing no urgency at all and not committing anyone.
Body language at one point looked disinterested and beaten. Walking slowly with no real energy to a 5m attacking lineout, same for attacking scrums.
First time this season ive seen the team look like that.

Then out of nowhere they woke up for the last 10 minutes and came within a score of actually snatching it. No idea what changed.

Ultimately given how we played we did well to steal a somewhat surprising losing bonus but really cant see that helping playoff wise with Cardiff, Merthyr etc to play.

Controversially i thought the refereeing was good. Penalising the ball carrier each and every time they held on or took an extra roll which is often ignored. Thought he did a good, even, consistent job throughout.

[Bodie 007]

I didn't think we played badly apart from some poor passing and impossible to catch passes.
Ref generally very good but the diving attempt of interception which was penalised but no yellow card? Joe Franchi scored late on but given as held up was not convincing either.
Llandovery were as expected a very well drilled team so I think we tackled very well and contained them but our silly mistakes cost us, I think the way we came back was due to the bench coming on and making a difference, set pieces were much improved and final try was excellent.

[jadegoodiesfridge]

Most of the points I was about to make have already been brought thanks guys.No matter.Let's be fair ,Llandovery ,has to be said,are a pretty hard side to beat any day of the week.So to come away with a losing bonus point when in all likelihood we should have been defeated 27-5, I'll take that.More than happy.
The tries we gave away WERE sloppy.Very sloppy.As previously pointed out.A stagnant defence watching and hoping the ball will roll over the dead ball line ,plain daft.Adam Warren will eat them up all day.A dropped pass in midfield when no tackler was in sight.Drovers scrum,which led to their second try.Frustrating.Charged down kick behind our line,try number three.Basic error.
Llandoverys backs fluid ,and dangerous.Ebbw's,a succession of dropped passes and confusion.Again,frustrating.
There were pluses though.Our line out was much better than in recent games.Not as good as Llandoverys,but an improvement nonetheless.Our scrum was good ,Very good.But once our backs received the ball ,we were back to type.The replacements did improve our performance,but it took time.
Apart from two silly tries,I thought our defence was superb.Ebbw also turned over Drovers ball,and how many times did we force them to be penalised inches short of our line.Excellent defense.
Biggest gripe of the day is that rule when a ball hasn't been grounded over the line,resulting in a drop out under the posts.Why should an attacking team be penalised for going over the try line ? We ended up collecting the kick on our 22.We were effectively penalised.Stupid rule.A defensive 5m scrum ,surely would suffice.
Great comeback by the boys though,deserved or not .Our try was an absolute cracker.Best this season.Well done the boys.This laid the foundations for another attack which got the bonus point kick.All n All,happy with that.........and Mr English.......has to be said.....was awesome.Great performance.Still don't forgive him for the Cardiff game though.( Did I see Paul Adams in the clubhouse after the game ?,think I did ).

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Biggest gripe of the day is that rule when a ball hasn't been grounded over the line,resulting in a drop out under the posts.Why should an attacking team be penalised for going over the try line ? We ended up collecting the kick on our 22.We were effectively penalised.Stupid rule.A defensive 5m scrum ,surely would suffice.

Hate that law.
I don't mind goal line drop out for the other type of dead ball things there but this really penalises an attacking side. It just encourages a pile on by the defending team to hide the ball and they get to win a turnover. Makes any sort of maul or pushover try somewhat risky as instead of scoring you end up losing the ball and potentially 40m with the resulting kick. More so at this level with no TMO to review it so decision has to be made on the spot without any benefit of extra angles.
Better options? Attacking team should retain possession i think to deter pile-ons. A free kick 10m out or on the 22?

From what i saw (behind the posts) i couldn't see the ball but i did see the ball carrier go to ground with nobody underneath and a while later stand up with the ball. Without a TMO that's always going to be a lottery. Can't really blame the referee there, there's no way he could have seen it.

Agree about the deliberate knock-on too - that's a card these days (as we've found out against Ponty and Bridgend). Any failed interception generally results in one whether deliberate or not currently.

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(and i'll never EVER forgive him for the Cardiff game and will be forever convinced he stole that one from us).

[jadegoodiesfridge]

Did I say Adam Warren.Apologies,should read Aaron Warren.Silly me.