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Cambridge Green Lions do it the hard way! |
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10 November 2008 |
With a 100% record from their first three games the Green Lions were determined to push on and make it a clean sweep for the first month of the season. Staffordshire University travelled all the way to Thetford RFC to play the game which had to be moved due to the wet grounds at Trinity.
With a 100% record from their first three games the Green Lions were determined to push on and make it a clean sweep for the first month of the season. Staffordshire University travelled all the way to Thetford RFC to play the game which had to be moved due to the wet grounds at Trinity. It hasn't been the happiest of hunting grounds for Cambridge over the years where they have failed to show the form that they know they are capable of. There was no change to this script for the majority of the game against Staffs where the start was strong and the finish clinical but the sixty minutes that were wedged in between were pretty ordinary based on the standards the players have set themselves this season.
Three early tries by Cambridge should have been the start of a relentless performance, but too much possession and too much freedom around the rucks meant that too many wrong options were taken by the leaders on the field. Staffs scored a try which was soft by anybody's standards and a half time rev up was the order of the day from the coaching staff. When you are on top of the opposition you have to turn the screw because momentum in a game of Rugby League can shift in the space of a set of six.
The second half was tough going for the Lions with Staffs, led by Veteran Gareth Barron now playing what seems like his tenth season of Student Rugby League, completing sets and working the Cambridge defence over which induced handling errors and gave Staffs some great field position for the first twenty minutes of the second half. This is where the Green Lions can take some plaudits because the theme that has run through the 08/09 group of players is desperate defence in their red zone and they repelled the attacks the men from the potteries threw at them.
With fatigue now biting the Staffs boys, Cambridge really made up for the hard work they had caused themselves with 4 trys scored in the last fifteen minutes. The final score was a fair reflection of the fight Staffs University put up and the off colour performance of the Lions, CUARLFC 46 - Staffs University 4.
Coach Evans was at a loss to explain the performance, "We looked at this fixture to blood some rookie players and to continue the performances we had come up with over the past three weeks but it was a pretty flat performance. All credit to Staffs University for the attitude they showed for the whole game and we could take some lessons from that. It was great to see Carl Schroeder back playing after seven months out with a serious injury and that will add to the competition for slots in the pack. The positive we can take away is the way we finished the last fifteen minutes with a hunger for points but using our brains and constructing the correct field position. We will need that for the full eighty minutes for our away game against Nottingham Trent who are always tough opposition."
KCJ Man of the Match was Paddy Hunt with a good defensive display from which he can take great confidence into the next game.
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