Well that was a hard watch......
Grateful to be getting out of that with a draw.
I appreciate the attacking intent and that is to be applauded generally BUT when you are away from home and a bonus point in the bag as well as a share of the spoils from a poor performance trying to attack the win by trying to go the length of the pitch from your own try line in wet conditions is NOT A SENSIBLE OPTION!!
We got away with it once but then tried it again 🤔😮
Thank god the touchline rescued us the second time.......😌
Aitchison the key player in that match - her kicking exceptional and that kept Sale with a lot of territory. Especially in the first twenty our killing was poor with no good opportunities to compete which gave Sale dominance territorially. We had scrum dominance and really should have won if our kicking had been better. Several crucial mistakes cost points. The forwards were excellent but our backs were not very incisive.
I thought we showed real determination in that game: determination to win, twice coming back from a two try deficit; and determination to lose by giving away needless penalties, particular in that harum-scarum last few minutes. It took us most of the first half to work out that kicking the ball to Holly Aitchison or, indeed, full back Lizzie Duffy was a bad idea - they just returned it with interest and we sometimes looked distinctly wobbly under the high ball. Aitchison delivered a masterclass kicking from hand, steering her team around the pitch. I was also frustrated that whenever Sale knocked on, we tried to play the advantage, normally kicking the ball straight back to Aitchison. I’d have liked to see Emily or Flo immediately asking the ref for a scrum, as we were clearly outmuscling them in that department and, as often as not, would have won a penalty. Once again the front row put up a heroic effort. Hope Rogers and Amy Rule played the full 80, and Cliodhna M-M was her normal bundle of energy when she came on. Dorothy Wall had real impact when she came off the bench, but I felt that we really missed Claudia M-M, who looked to have been a late withdrawal. We could have done with her abrasive competitiveness and playing nous.
Whilst I was gutted that Liv fluffed the final, pretty easy, conversion to give us the lead, by the end I was pretty relieved to leave with 3 points. The clock in the stadium wasn’t linked to the stoppages, so we had no idea how long was left after our women decided to risk everything trying to score from their own try line. You can’t fault their passion, but sometimes a cool head is better!
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