OFF THE MARK

Third time’s the charm eh?

We fell ever so short last weekend, but this weekend we were controlling and, in my opinion, much more convincing. In the second half (very similarly to the Glasgow game) we dominated and, yes we didn’t take all of our chances, but at least this time we took two of our chances and ended up leaving with the win.

What I want to focus on however, is our low points tally. The Ospreys have scored 97 points in their three matches. Munster are very close behind on 96. We languish at the bottom on 38. That’s an average of 12.67 points per match. Last season we averaged 26.23 points a game. Now I know we’re only three games into the season, but so far that’s not a very good stat to have.

Why am I bringing this up now? Well if you go back and watch both the Glasgow match and then the Connacht match you will see how many chances we had to score that we didn’t take. An overthrown line-out, a dropped pass near the line, a forward pass, they all add up eventually. Against Glasgow we were rightly punished, luckily we weren’t against Connacht.

That’s mainly down to our second half control though which was very impressive. As we should have done, we played the game down in the Connacht half and by the time they managed to threaten our line for only the second time in the match, the game was already done. We prevented the home team from gaining the losing bonus point which was very good as well.

But there’s no point in focusing on the negatives. Before the game I said that I would take a scrappy 3-0 win and I still stand by that. Anything to get off the mark in the league and start building momentum ahead of the massive Heineken Cup clash against Leicester which is now only 17 days away. The longer we went without a win, the lower the morale would have fallen – at least we now read W 1 instead.

This Friday must see another win chalked up. Should other results go our way we could see ourselves back up into the top four in the table – not too bad considering some people were writing off our Pro12 chances after the Glasgow defeat. Amazing how a few results can go your way and suddenly you’re right back in the mix.

Treviso will provide very stiff opposition. I’ll admit, I have a soft spot for them because they are one of the most underrated sides in all of Europe – what Franco Smith has done for them is absolutely remarkable, turning them from part-timers into a team that everybody looks at and thinks, “They can cause us real problems.” Even though they lost playmaker Kristopher Burton to the Dragons, their win over Munster last week proves how strong they remain and they will come to Ravenhill in a buoyant mood.

It’s up to us to stop them in their tracks. While we could sing their praises all night, the harsh reality remains that they probably aren’t a top four side yet. As a side with real aspirations to win the league, let alone finish in the top four, we should be looking to win this game, and with John Afoa, Rory Best, Tommy Bowe and Stuart Olding possibly returning on Friday, this should definitely be a game we will take all four points from.

The lads will have to front up though. We weren’t perfect against Connacht and Treviso are a side that will definitely punish us for our shortcomings. However, Anscombe will be very happy that we’re off the mark and we can now build on that. Friday should be a very good match though. I’m excited already!

Viva Italia

Zebre finally won a match!!!

I’m delighted for them, they’ve come so close in previous years (against us mainly!) and now they’ve got over the line – away to Cardiff nonetheless. Even if there was a bit of controversy when they were down to 14 men – and had 15 on the pitch – they were deserving winners and hopefully this is the start of better things for the Italian side.

Meanwhile, back in Italy there was another shock as Treviso ended Munster’s unbeaten run with an impressive 29-19 win at the Stadio di Monigo, which saw four Munster players yellow carded in the last fifteen minutes.

In the wake of the PRL claims that the Rabo is too weak, Zebre’s first win plus proof that Treviso can hack it with the big guns should be evidence enough that the Rabo is stocked full of talent throughout the league. And who knows, even though I don’t think either are good enough just yet, maybe we’ll see the first Italian play-off team at the end of this season, just to rub it in the English’s faces…