Albion are having a right jamboree before, at half time and after the game. They'll be targeting this game as the start of the route out of their current plight. Reports say some more significant players will be returning to the squad.
I looked at the Albion site and while players are listed with photos I couldnt find pen pictures to scrutinize their pedigree and experience. Some of them look a heavy bunch!
Theres an interesting commentary on rugby in the Plymouth Herald by Chris Bentley - former player and now Executive "Building a team to be proud of but will take time."
I still think Adam has some interesting selection decisions. The squad is clearly coming together and some players who didn’t feature in the match against Tonbridge must be in reckoning - David Langley and Ethan Priest as examples. Sam excelled on the wing and Mason Tonks has proved to be a real handful for all opposing backs. A nice headache for Adam to have.
Langley has a neck injury (I asked him at the game last week). Zindi had an ice pack on his knee last night.
Thanks for the update CJB. I also noticed at the match that Isaac McNulty had a wrist support so presumably that has kept him out of contention. Does anyone know if Levi Davis and Ed Drake-Lee are also injured?
20 - 0 at half time and then to go on and lose the second half - AS WELL - AND to the team at the bottom of the league with no wins at all. To say I am disappointed is an understatement.
Am I glad I talked myself out of going to Plymouth.
Without any travelling supporters to give their penneth we're all in the dark but, having read somewhere that Plymouth have some big lumps and, reflecting on Moseley performances so far this season, particularly in the first half, it wouldn't surprise me if Moseley were bullied up front.
Here's to Leeds at home next week so, Come on Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooose
Adam's post match twitter comments sum it up!Long journey home. We seem to have foresaken our defensive strengths for try scoring flair! Great to watch but as we all know this doesn't always work.
Thanks Grooveavenue - that makes huge sense. It seems strange that we can on the one hand open the floodgates to allow sides to tot up big scores in the first half against us but then put in great defensive performances to keep sides to low second half scores. At Caldy our defensive performance was particularly good - keeping them to nil as I recall. Big opportunity next week vs Leeds. Come on Mose!
Plymouth were up for it from the beginning ,their forwards looked strong. We conceded a yellow card on their 1st try, losing Ashley.Their number 10 was clinical with his kicking. We got nowhere near their line in the 1st half when playing up the hill. Second half with the advantage we gave away an early try. 27 nil down we asserted ourselves and we scored two tries, the 1st being a great breakaway from Tom Benjamin. Unlucky that conversion hit the post. The 2nd try came from a forwards drive scored by Greg Frisilau. We butchered a likely third try when camped close to the line. A wayward pass in front of our posts gifted them their 4th and bonus point try - game over. Jacques and Kailus played well. Lineouts included wayward throws, as well as, knock-ons and dropped balls summed up a bad day at the office.
Couldn’t make the game so thanks moseleywedge for the brief outline. The report in The Rugby Paper also doesn’t make for good reading. Adam made a point before the game that they were looking for a more settled side. I don’t advocate wholesale changes but personally I think we need to revisit some of our options. Maybe play Andy on the wing where I believe he excelled at Coventry. Possibly play Mason at centre etc. We also have some players who haven’t featured due to injury. It would be good to get some feedback on when they may be fit to be considered.
I am at a loss to come up with some plausible reason why Moseley regularly put in a poor first half performances and finish up playing catch up rugby - after all most of the 'coaching advice' we supporters offer has already been voiced. And we can't keep using 'big lumps' as excuses after watching the Moseley Oak v Birmingham Medics match earlier this season. There Oak, with a substantially heavier pack than the Medics won well but certainly did not get their own way up front. The medics had a lean and lanky loose head prop who played well above what his physique suggested. Indeed at the first scrum I expected the Medics to have been annihilated, but they were not, far from it. They were well organised up front, particularly in the tight and punched well above their weight throughout the entire game.
And it here, organised up front, is where I perceive the Moseley Achilles's heel to be. This weeks The Rugby Paper report mentions Moseley penalties - and a yellow card - and I would not be surprised if Moseley had the worst penalty record in the league, many of them in their own 25, where an effective opposition catch and drive is at it's most lethal.
Most teams have difficulty stopping a rolling maul created in the loose, let alone from a catch and drive and Moseley are no exception. From my observations Moseley are at their most vulnerable in these situations often conceding penalties for basic errors such as coming in from the side - let alone the more subtle, experienced means. They even give away penalties when they are the attacking maul which is worrying. And too many of those penalties cost the lads territory at the best and territory and 5 yard catch and drive position at the worst.
It is always difficult to offer constructive criticism but that we must all aspire to.
Effort, for a start, has always been evident with this Moseley side, that is without question. But effort alone is not the answer. As I have said before experience, nous and cohesion are also key components in creating an effective force and this is where Moseley struggle. But achieving those essential qualities that takes time and time, the most precious factor of all, is always scarce. I feel fitness, particularly up front - getting up and back into position - also comes into the equation and that is down to the individual.
I know from playing experience that fitness in the three quarters - something I always envied of others - is totally different to fitness in the forwards. I recall as a youngster in the army that I found it no effort to cover 100 yards in a mere 10 seconds or so and 200 yards in around 25 seconds but it came to the one mile minimum fitness test - four times round the square in boots - I struggled and scraped in with about 3 seconds to spare.
I know I make light of fitness levels but they are important, particularly as a compensation for the lack of experience and nous. I remember playing with the Moseley third team at Harlequins many years ago - Moseley were desperately scratching the barrel playing me at hooker - but they had two young, 6' 6", fit as fiddles stallions paying second row. Harlequins, by contrast, had an old, bearded guy playing second row who just plodded around the field. And boy oh boy didn't he give those stallions a lesson in second row play. They must have been completely demoralised by the end as he turned them inside out and pinching the ball every time they had it at the line-out or in the loose. And when it came to the tight he marshalled his forwards like a mother goose leading her little ones. They didn't stand a chance. Needless to say we lost.
I know there is always the talk of the benefits of playing on the front foot but achieving that is the golden grail of rugby. If we can achieve that and score from it - which we can, but not enough times - that would work wonders.
Perhaps the lads could concentrate on getting just a couple of key moments absolutely perfect - the catch and drive up front, for example along with the 50:20 kick in the backs. Get those two elements pitch perfect and working in tandem would increase Moseley's bread and butter scoring opportunities immensely. Then we could see the champagne rugby Moseley can play.
May we hope to start that on Saturday against Leeds?
Come on Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooose
