Plan B? There is no plan B

So I built the annual girls' weekend away around Yorkshire Carnegie's trip to Richmond when one of the girls asked: "Can we go to London?" I bet she wished she hadn't as, besides being a rugby virgin, she asked me several times in the hours after the match and over dinner: "Why didn't we try harder?" I do like her we mentality. Which is a pretty good question to ask because for all bar a 25 minute section around half time (10 minutes of which London Scottish had a player in the bin) Yorkshire Carnegie seemed to be half asleep.

You sort of knew it was going to be one of those days when Sinfield's kick off didn't go 10 - it went three at most then went backwards and the stiff, cold breeze wasn't even blowing in that direction to carry it back.

Scottish started on the front foot and were attacking from the off. It was only a series of forced mistakes that stopped them scoring sooner after their catch and drive proved ineffective and they opted for a kick for the posts.

They went further ahead when Scofield proved himself to be an immobile object when he was isolated and Stegman, sporting an awful beard to counter act his waxed and oiled legs, couldn't keep hold of the ball and a try was scored from the advantage. The conversation was missed. 8-0.

Yorkshire Carnegie realised they were in a match and half got out of their stupor.  The catch and drive from a series of infringements was used to move the ball up the pitch. At the final catch and drive, a penalty try was awarded that was converted which was promptly followed by a Scottish player being sent to the bin. 8-7 and that's how it remained at half time.

Pilgrim got a knock late in the first and was replaced during the break by Green. At the start of the second half Yorkshire Carnegie came out all guns blazing - when I say guns, I mean those plastic, cap guns we had as kids! But it was enough oomph as another catch and drive from a penalty saw Charlie Beech plop over the line with all the aplomb of a bull elephant seal manoeuvring himself into the sea. I don't mean that to be rude - it was a majestic sight to see the big man land dive forwards, over the line. The try was converted, 8-14.

By then Scottish had sussed the catch and drive mentality and were coming away with the ball or causing Yorkshire Carnegie to make unforced errors which were pinged or managing to push us backwards. About three or four attempts came to nowt, so at the next penalty Sinfield went for, and got the three points.

Like Groundhog Day, another few catch and drives got us nowhere quick and it was blindly obviously (as the rugby virgin asked: "Why do they keep on doing it when it isn't working?") that the tactic was not working but no other plan was forthcoming, yet alone working. So after another few failed attempts, Kev kicked a penalty and it was 8-20 with 10 to go.

Then the action was all up the wrong end of the pitch and the tannoy chappy got the crowd going. "You watch us lose this", I said to my chums. They thought I was mad but the regular Carnegie fans didn't.

Scottish were doing a fair amount of catching and driving of their own. Yorkshire Carnegie's defence was holding strong but a well worked try and conversion came from the novel idea of the forwards linking with the backs and a few poor tackles saw the score jump to 15-20.  With 80 minutes on the clock (as you can see from the picture) and with about three maximum to play, that should've been it. More catching and driving from Scottish ended with Buzz being binned for some misdemeanour or another. Several times we got our grubby mitts on the ball but somehow squandered the chances with awful decision making on kicking it away and failing to make touch. So on the last of those occasions, Scottish charged, found a gurt big hole in the defence and scored. The difficultish conversation was successful and another dreadful attempt at defending a reasonable lead had hit the dust. One word AWFUL.

My views on the match; Holmes was industrious all match but wasn't getting the breaks and, at times, support he needed. Likewise Prell, Casson had a bit of life about him but he's not that fast so gets swamped very easily.  Beech was just about all over the place and in the second half Buzz decided to do a bit of battering ramming with Green having a good half personally - he's a live wire and can deliver quick ball. The kicking out of hand was awful - out on the fulls, slices, not even finding touch - you name it. Sinfield was having a more than a bit of a mare. He couldn't really cope without Leonard behind/guiding him, was in the wrong position many times and tried too much fancy off-loading.

The distinct lack of plan B (tee hee - I'm typing this on my mobile on a train home from my weekend away and predicted text put that as p●● beat) was and is very concerning. The catch and drive is now becoming boring and other teams who have a big pack can work out how to disrupt it with a miniscule amount of homework.

This awful performance was not down to loads of changes since the last outing. I believe much was down to poor team selection. Scofield's not fit - he was huffing and puffing after 10 minutes, Sinfield proved himself too inexperienced for that level of opposition and needs support from Leonard to carry him, and as for Stegman - a partially fit Oli Goss knocks spots off him. Add in a lack lustre performance with the usual dip in effort and absolutely no ideas when the game plan is not working and you've a recipe for disaster. Back to the drawing board and stop this grasping defeat out of the jaws of victory even if it is only by a point or two.