At Last
By Blues Ed
March 12 2021
Back to Goldingrton Road at last - at least for the players. The rest of us can watch the Blues take on Hartpury College on live streaming - Friday night kick off 7.45 on live stream.
Judging by last week's game at Coventry it's well worth spending a tenner to watch the game and a boost for the club sign up here.
Lot of new names in the squad with enforced changes, due to citings and injuries, plus the financial need to give some exercise to players from Premiership clubs.
In all there are seven changes to the side. In the pack Ed Prowse makes his debut at tighthead with skipper Sean McCarthy back at loosehead.Oli Robinson comes in on the blindside.
The half backs will be James Lennon and Will Maisey as Connor Tupai is ruled out through suspension for a tip tackle last week. Out wide Josh Gillespie makes his debut wth a welcome return for Matt Worley on the other wing.
Some new loanees on the bench from Wasps in the shape of scrum half Ewan Fenley and prop Rob Hardwick.
Blues: 15. Rich Lane, 14. Josh Gillespie, 13. Elijah Niko, 12. Reuben Bird-Tulloch, 11. Matt Worley, 10. Will Maisey, 9. James Lennon; 1. Sean McCarthy (C), 2. James Fish, 3. Ed Prowse, 4. Lewis Bean, 5. Will Carrick Smith, 6. Oli Robinson, 7. Joe Atkinson, 8. Tui Uru.
Reps: 16. Jacob Fields, 17. Joe Wrafter, 18. Rob Hardwick, 19. Manny Iyogun, 20. Ollie Newman, 21. Ewan Fenley, 22. Tommy Mathews, 23. Ryan Olowofelala
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How have they been getting on so far? Am I reading the team sheet right and Manny is covering second row? There were really high hopes for him at loosehead, so a bit strange to see him covering 4 & 5?
Quote:DaventrySaint
Hi guys, just dropping by as I've been trying to keep an eye on Saint's dual-registered players.
How have they been getting on so far? Am I reading the team sheet right and Manny is covering second row? There were really high hopes for him at loosehead, so a bit strange to see him covering 4 & 5?
We are lacking 2nd rows at the moment, he came on at No. 8, we have 3 front rowers and effectively 2 backrows on the bench. Both 2nd rows played the full 80 last week.
That said there was much to take heart from and this squad will get better.
Agree with the line-out catch and drive, however the rules rightly favour the attacking side so any team will struggle to stop a well worked line out set piece.
I thought the ref had a good game and let it flow as much as possible, and no yellow cards which is an improvement for Bedford.
Good to get the win without them getting the losing bonus but we also had plenty of opportunities for the bonus point.
Agreed about the ref, he was consistent.
Also Robinson had a good game, considering he wasn’t expecting to start.
Strengths:
- Slick backs running
- Offloading game from the forwards with some speedy players in there too
- Two impressive place kickers
Set-piece has been reasonable so far - line-out maybe improved. Pirates though are supposed to have very strong scrum.
Weaknesses:
- Conceding silly penalties - didn't do it so much, but did at certain points. The Saints players seem a little more prone to this.
- As has been said, weakness to well-constructed driving maul, but that's something all teams will do well to defend more often than not
- A touch of naivety with game management - two games where been well ahead and just eased off slightly, enabling nervy times towards the end. I think replacing Lennon at 64mins rather than 70+ was a mistake yesterday though - he was really directing our attacking play.
- Had to make late changes to line-up I think for every game.
Two of those weaknesses I view as fixable quite quickly and one possibly bad luck.
Finally, the timing of changes is going to be key this season. Maintaining a level of control once we have gained it, especially between 60 and 75 minutes, otherwise we will throw results away.
Well done blues. On to the next.