By Whaley Shark
December 5 2010

OK, at a little before half distance, the Premiership has been put on ice, literally in our case, until after Christmas. We resume away to Leicester Tigers in three weeks time. The tickets are safely tucked away and that’s something to look forward to after an overdose of mince pies. So perhaps now is a chance to take stock…..

Tonight, we’re tenth in the table, in a trailing group of the northern clubs, all of whom had their game cancelled this weekend to accentuate the gap which seems to be developing. From our perspective, Bath are five points ahead of us with the same number of games played. We do have a bit of a cushion over unfortunate, winless Leeds, although Falcons are only one win behind us.

It would be good to put together a bit of a run and rocket up to mid-table mediocrity. All the mid-table clubs have twenty-something points, so we aren’t yet that far off the pace. Moreover, we do seem to have been hit hard by injuries and we did lose quite a few players to the autumn internationals, so it’s perhaps not surprising we have struggled in the last month or so. With the return of the international players and some of the casualties starting to reappear, with any luck, we’ll be able to field stronger sides for at least the next couple of months and, indeed, we should lose fewer players to the Six Nations than we did to the autumn series. We also have yet to play quite a few of the bottom half teams at EP. So hopefully, we are now at or close to this season’s low point and the only way will be up!

Regardless of position in the table, I am actually a far happier bunny than I was this time last year. We do seem to have quite an array of talent, much of it young and, while we are still raw, and I certainly haven’t worked out our ‘style’, there does seem to be more adventure about our play this year (though leavened with a heavy dose of pragmatism on occasion). Comfortingly, I do think we have a sense of direction, which we lacked previously.

Off the field, personally I am pleased to hear a bit less of Mike Brewer fulminating in public than we did at the start of the season. I have no doubt he still has strong views on individual and team performances, but in my view they are much better kept in the family. Public criticism can be demotivating and divisive, and is far more often destructive than constructive. So, my thanks for keeping a lid on it, Mike.

What is there to look forward to? Well hopefully nine or ten points from two games against Brive in the Amlin Cup over the next couple of weeks, followed by five at Welford Road on December 27^th. And on that note, I’m going to stop- the medication is clearly wearing off…....