Season Review 2009-10 Part 1- The Facts
By Whaley Shark
May 9 2010
Well, thank God that’s over. 11th in the table certainly isn’t a distinguished performance but it’s better than poor Worcester, in 12th, and that’s enough. The Whaley Shark reflects on the highs and lows of a rollercoaster season……
The season began in anger with a narrow home win against Leicester Tigers on a damp, early September evening. All our points came from Lee Thomas’s boot, and the game was memorable for our heroic last ditch defence as the clock ran down and Tigers battered at our line. Perhaps a sign of things to come, we lost Charlie after that game for the next few weeks with a foot injury. The following weekend, we fought our way to a tense 16-all draw up at Kingston Park. Bath, still recovering from their close season turmoil and bottom of the table, were our next visitors. Centre Matt Carraro produced a masterclass, scoring two tries in Bath’s comfortable 25-12 win, and we failed to make any impression even when they were reduced to 13 players near the end. Our soon-to-be-infamous kicking game also made its first appearance in this match. We adopted a more balanced approach away at Worcester, scoring two tries but ultimately leaving Sixways with only a losing bonus point. The next weekend, in a rainy, forward-dominated battle at Edgeley Park, our lack of a cutting edge told, and we went down narrowly at home to London Irish whose try, the only one of the match, was made by some sparkling play from former Sale player Elvis Seveali’i.
Then we put the Premiership on ice for a while, and started our Heineken Cup campaign with a five tries to three defeat at Toulouse. Our heavily rotated side, something else that was to become a characteristic of the season, was certainly not embarrassed, but you always had the feeling that the French had another gear or two if they needed it. The decision to rest key players was probably justified by our narrow win against Cardiff Blues the following week, a win more comfortable than the final 27-26 score suggests. However, we also lost Andrew Sheridan for the season, following a dislocated shoulder caused by a scrum collapse.
Then, switching back to the Premiership and away at Saints, we clawed our way back to a losing bonus point after being 15-3 down at half time. Gloucester visited Edgeley Park the next weekend and, although we won, we were outscored by three tries to one and allowed Gloucester to come back from 22-11 to 28-23, in spite of the opposition playing over the half the match with only 14 men after Sharples was red-carded for dangerous play.
We opened our LV= campaign with a non-performance away at Newport, going down 20-9 to the Dragons, but the following week we buried Leeds at Edgeley Park with four tries before half time. In one of those little ironies of the Premiership fixture list, we then visited Leeds, firmly anchored at the bottom of the table, went 17-3 down, then came back in the second half with three converted tries to win 17-24. Our next game was away at table-topping Saracens in the pouring rain, where we lost narrowly. Then it was back to the Heineken and Harlequins twice- first a comprehensive four try win at the Stoop and, in the reverse fixture, a closer game but still a win in blizzard conditions. We ended 2009 with another of our ‘away’ sides losing comprehensively at Welford Road although, small positive, we fought to the end and it did take until time added on for Tigers to score their fourth try.
The New Year began with Quins (again!) visiting Stockport in the Premiership, but we only just nicked this one. A last ditch Charlie Hodgson tackle at the very end to send Monye into touch saved the game for us. Then it was Heineken time again, but an underperformance in Cardiff, followed by a Toulouse win at Edgeley Park, ended our campaign in disappointment. We then lost twice to end our LV= cup hopes, first at home to Northampton Saints, who started with a Chris Mayor try after three minutes and put on a sparkling display of threequarter play to take an early lead we couldn’t haul back, and then we lost heavily away to Bath. Time to concentrate on the Premiership…
And it was as well we did! Deprived of our internationals, and with several long term injuries, we embarked on a dreadful run, losing away to Wasps but salvaging a losing bonus with a late Charlie drop goal, then sliding right down into the relegation scrap by losing at home to a disciplined, determined, bottom of the table Leeds, and finally ending February by conceding six tries in a Kingsholm mudbath.
Visiting Edgeley Park, Saints showed us why they were challenging at the top of the table, scoring two tries to take a 15-0 lead. A late, late Ben Cohen try saved us the embarrassment of being nilled, but the defeat sent us to twelfth in the table. The shock of going bottom, plus the postponed home game against Wasps, provided motivation for both players and supporters, and an evening of rugby to set the heart racing ended our eight game, two month losing streak. A battering away at London Irish set up a crunch home game against Worcester. The return of Mark Cueto and Mathew Tait gave us a badly needed cutting edge, the crowd was well up for it, and we secured an invaluable four points to take us off the bottom of the table.
Two heavy defeats against teams pushing for playoff places followed, at home against Saracens and away to Bath but, fortunately, we were no worse than our rivals in the Premiership’s bargain basement and it was all to play for as the regular season drew to a close. Although we lost narrowly to Falcons at Edgeley Park in a game where the players’ performances clearly showed the stresses of the relegation dogfight, the bonus point we secured, coupled with Worcester’s defeat at Leeds 36 hours later, made us mathematically safe with one round of games to go. So we finished the season with a nothing game away at Quins, where we got off to a poor start, conceding two tries, fought our way back and then, dreaming of sun and sand, leaked a couple of soft tries to go down 35-20.
Reflections on the season to follow.