One That Got Away

This was expected to be a tough test away at Manchester and so it proved to be. Manchester were stronger up front and made it very difficult for us in the scrummages and in the red-zone mauls. Outside the scrum, Manchester posed little threat and we should have been able to break them down, easily. Indeed, after the opening exchanges, Saints strung together some impressive passages of play with slick off-loads to create well-taken tries by Ewan Nolan and Adam Bramhall. It seemed that we would easily over-run Manchester as the game progressed.

But, it was not to be. All too often, we were caught taking the ball into isolated contact, stripped, and forced to defend. We failed to use territory to our advantage, particularly as Manchester made so many mistakes in counter-attack. Half Backs, Liam McGovern and Chris Pilgrim kicked for position very well. Only, they should have done so more often to get us into the attack zones.

All too often, we tried to run the ball out of defence and got caught behind the line, putting us under even more pressure. At this level, we need to play for territory and put pressure on the opposition counter-attack. They will rarely pose too much of a threat on the return. Certainly, Manchester didn't.

We will up our game against other opponents. We will have to as we will face much better teams in this division.