Episode 23 - Grassroots Rugby Season is Back - Petersfield host North Dorset in the Season Opener

In this episode of Rugby Through The Leagues, the hosts discuss the kickoff of the new rugby season, analyzing the performance of the Petersfield team in their first match. They reflect on the challenges faced during the game, including fitness and decision-making issues, while also looking ahead to upcoming matches and the overall expectations for the season. The conversation highlights the importance of teamwork, coaching strategies, and player development in grassroots rugby.

Transcript

Rugby Through The Leagues (00:00)
Go on! Go on!

What?

Carl (00:13)
Hello and welcome to another episode of Rugby Through the Leagues podcast. I'm Carl and everyone that's been through the pods probably recently known that been traveling around, but this is the final intro that we're gonna have back in England. We are off to Spain during the week. So social is gonna be a little bit light but we are finally making it back to the hopeful sunshine. So obviously this week.

We got the pleasure of going up to Petersfield the other week for their first game of the season. Managed to meet up with North Dorset as well. We were an absolute pleasure to meet. Hopefully saw, you guys saw earlier in the week, we went back up to Newbury as well, got some interviews, got welcomed up there again. Obviously they've had a bit of a tougher start to the season than they hoped and we probably all expected after having a blistering pre -season. But went to Petersfield.

had an absolute blinder of a day, great group of lads, great accommodation, great ground pitch looked amazing, great day of rugby ahead, and then the drizzle come down, which probably took a bit of a zip off the game, but 32 -17 win at home to start the season off weren't too bad for Petersfield Obviously, seemed to come at a tougher game against Totts at the weekend, which unfortunately didn't come away with a win, but

Not a bad start for Petersfield in that league. North Dorset managed to go and take a victory off Chichester as well. So it looks like it's gonna be a competitive league there. Obviously Winchester put a pump in on Andover, so who knows how this one's gonna go this league. But we'll obviously keep abreast of it. Petersfield was so welcoming, obviously more than happy to help with everything that we were trying to do. Lined everything up, put a brilliant lunch on, got to manage to meet Stu Barden and

the chairman there and big plans ahead for the club. The supporters were brilliant, everyone was brilliant. It was a really great day out. So I think you guys will really enjoy this one. So the competition, we want to try and redesign the logo. We also want a backdrop behind which includes a hundred

local grass, well grassroots rugby clubs across the globe. So as far as we can spread this, as far as possible, we'll try and get logos from here, there to everywhere. So I think we'll then be able to get it put into a random generator, get those hundred clubs picked, and then we'll be able to get the design sorted up and hopefully get them ready by the start of the new year. So that's the plan. Really want to sort of put grassroots back into that spotlight.

and if our logo and everything like that is there permanently, we might regenerate it in a year's time, who knows, but let's try and get this one underway. So I'll be putting a post out later on again with it and probably tagging a few clubs just to get the ball rolling. So hopefully you enjoy this one. It's a great one. It's a proper grassroots rugby club again. So let's get on with it.

Rugby Through The Leagues (03:14)
Right, we are down at Petersfield for the first game of the season. We've got Jamie here, he's team manager, correct? Pitch looks pretty decent out there, mate. Yeah, Chris Todd our groundsman, worked really hard over the summer, yeah, really He's been winding him up in the league lunch and he's character in He's very easy to wind up as well.

Is fully fit today? Has there been availability of a full squad? Yes and no. There's been a few injuries that have come up over the last couple of weeks. Some to do with rugby, some outside of rugby, just wear and tear. yeah, pre -season has gone well. It's just generally just hopefully now we've had a few pre -season games against level five opposition which put ourselves in a half decent position. So we look forward to it.

Obviously North Dorset have come up, sort of same position as you guys. How do you think they're prepared? they look fairly forward heavy, seeing as Dorset side? Yeah, so seeing them all turn up and they look quite set in their forwards. hopefully...

pitch is quite wide so hopefully we can get the ball moving and utilise our backs and hopefully be able to penetrate them around the outside. Is that kind of the game plan today? Yeah I think so.

keeping the ball in our hands and sort of with no one else. We nearly got a North Dorset there. on man, get involved. You can come in later if you want. Okay, so Conor, try and stretch them a little bit. Yeah, just move it around and then just hopefully fitness will take in and we find the gaps. Yeah, 100%. I'm sure there's probably gaps to be found. The pitch looks pretty decent. Weather's probably going to work in your favour, do think?

Or does it slow the pitch down? No, it should work in our favour. It's not obviously too well out there, so it's just going to be a little keep the ball in hand. I think at the end of the day it will be the side that comes off with the least amount of errors. It's going to be the one that wins the day. Game plan to try keep that penalty count down and just make sure you keep it under your jumper a little bit and when the opportunities come round.

You lost a couple of lads pre -season as well, was that correct? couple of moved on? Or was it Tommy Mathews that moved across up to Cov? So yeah, Tommy Mathews, he's been a Petersfield boy since he's been really young. He come down, obviously he's trained a little bit with us, sort of allowed a little bit of knowledge to be handed on to us. But he was never really going to be on the books.

But yeah, we've had a few that have sort gone to take their hand, sort of try and higher up. You can't No, exactly. They're at that age where they're coming to sort of like the peak of their career and playing some really good rugby. So you sort of go, yeah, go and try your hand at it. And obviously we'll be here with open arms if they sort of go, actually, it's not for me. You've heard.

Pretty decent set up down here, obviously I see that you guys have managed to get the Warriors gym around the corner or whatever it's called. Has there been much uptake pre -season for everyone getting down here, everyone taking on responsibility of their phys? I think a lot of boys have realised that it's a step up. And I think from last year to this year a lot of boys were finding it not easy as such but they're comfortable.

They were higher level in their fitness than they had been throughout all of their other seasons. So now this year they know actually we're going to have to step up and MCR Director Rugby has had plans set out for everyone. So nutrition, strength and conditioning plans throughout the summer to actually get boys coming into pre -season in a pretty good shape. Brilliant, yeah obviously we had Matty on quite early on. He's now got the DOR role.

Has it all gone to his head? Has the power gone to his head now with the DOR? No, definitely not. He's still sort of very level -headed in terms of... But expectations are higher and that's what makes him probably the perfect man for the job because actually if someone had their expectations lower, well that's all you're going to strive to do. 100%. His expectations are higher, that's all we're going to What are the expectations in this season? Has anyone said it out loud?

I don't think anyone said it out loud. think from my own personal sort of view, I think if we can be in a position at Christmas to be... There or thereabouts? I would probably say if we're top half, other side of Christmas...

could be in with a chance of pushing for promotion, that's where I want to be. I don't want us like last season, we went into the second half of the season with a massive target on our back because we were up there, we were beating teams comfortably. I don't want us to be in that position because then that then puts an expectation on us and an extra pressure on us. I'd rather be in the chasing pack. Yeah, think obviously.

If you can keep the pitch the way it is as well and get the other side of Christmas and get that zipping, it's going to work though, the games are going to work. I'm guessing the plan is to try get as many home points as possible. You've got to your stamp on it at home. Home being at home is definitely a must for us. So yeah, that's what we're going to be going. Brilliant. So, prediction for today.

I think it's going to be a tight one. I think it's probably going to be about 27 -23 to us. Sounds good. That'll be an epic game if it is. Yeah, definitely. Really appreciate your time. I'll catch up with you at half time if that's all right? Yeah, perfect. Perfect.

Rugby Through The Leagues (09:01)
so we've now got Zach from North Dorset. Really appreciate your time mate. What's your expectations this season? Obviously you got promoted last year. What's the plan? So for us this season it's all about sustaining this level. We're a club that have been thriving and building for years now.

want to sustain this level of rugby for the future and for the boys that have worked really hard in last couple of seasons together. Brilliant, so obviously last season got promoted, was it a clean cut or was it a little bit of a grind? Did you walk the league or did it come down to the last We had a couple of games which we sort of slipped up on, which we were gutted about, but we did it in the same game at home, which is our big fortress and we're trying to keep that going again this year and hopefully we can do that and also there were a couple of games last year which was a bit tougher than we expected.

So obviously this year you've got some big big big games probably coming up.

What's your standard default as yours? yeah, are big up front. The pack every week will weigh at least a tonne. It won't stop going. People look at it and we hear it every single week. Look at them, they're going to tire. And I promise you now, they won't tire. They'll keep going and the bench is just as big.

They'll keep going all game and they are big When it does get out to the backs eventually, they got enough to finish it off? They see the ball a little bit and when they do they finish it, which is really good. Big up front pack. Happy days. obviously big season ahead. Some big games coming up. You've got a nice little derby against Bournemouth as well. Yeah, we're looking forward to playing Bournemouth. Haven't played Bournemouth for a few years now. At first in level, obviously they've come down a little bit. So we're looking forward to playing Bournemouth again. Looking forward to playing our old friends at Wimborne

to come and all these great new clubs. pitch out there today. I'd say come to Petersfield today, absolutely lovely hosts. The pitch is looking amazing. The clubhouse was absolutely lovely and really hospitable and accommodating. So I'm really looking forward to coming to more clubs like this this season.

What's for this year then? Is it just make sure you're stable in this league and go again? Or do think you're going to be the dark horses and sort of appear at that front pack at the end of the year? For us the aim is mid table. If we can finish sixth or seventh this year we'll be absolutely over the moon and just build on it and build on it and then yeah who knows whether we'll be in a couple of years time but for this year it's about the boys giving it their all and finishing mid table would be the icing on the cake. So how did you come DOR then?

So you're not probably too old are you? No, from a young age I was always organising bits and bobs straight out of Colts. was of third, 13th captain, played a bit of two, a couple of games for the ones. pretty much team bin juice. Yeah, lot of organising, organising sevens competitions, organising the women's team.

Yeah for me like it's all about getting back to the community and the people that help me I'm not an amazing rugby player I'm not gonna say I am but I absolutely love what I do and yeah getting these boys up here and they put on the show and we help the show happen behind the scenes and I absolutely love that. Club in a good state, good platform to push forward if you the opportunity. Yeah, club's doing really well we had our first weekend back last weekend everyone from under fives.

Up to the women we trained last year which is great to see. The boys have now done two pre -season games. They've been training for the last couple of months. So yeah, the kids absolutely run right on Sunday and it's great to see. Got many in the youth system? Yeah, everyone from 13 to 16's got 30 plus players in that. The boys and the girls in their age group are amazing. The girls team 12's, 14's, 16's. Between the three there's 50 plus.

They're in their fourth competitive season. Wow, what league are they in? So they're in NC2. wow. They do come in to Hampshire a little bit, and Bix and Bobs.

They're doing really well with newbies all the time coming into Women's Rugby which is great. Today and this season the big effort is going to be watching the first team and giving them as much support as possible and everyone at home is wishing them the best and home games are going to be noisy so if you do come down to us bring some noise as well because we're all here for a time. it's good. Kusty, really appreciate your time today. very much. Hopefully we'll have you at half time. Yeah, love you very much.

Rugby Through The Leagues (13:14)
Right so we're at half time, not a bad little first half mate, we're 27 up at the minute. There you go sunshine, nearly got his boobs out on the telly for us.

There we go, there we go, he's got a step on him. Right, so decent first half, 20 -7 on the scoreboard, 20 -10 sorry on the scoreboard. How do you think it went? I think it's been okay, think it's been quite scrappy. First 20 minutes, you a little bit unsure of the level you were at. Yeah, I definitely think we felt like that on the pitch as well. I think we obviously went straight back into our old habits where last season

We were making like a line break off of the first pass where this season it's very different.

So we now have to learn how to build. If we don't build, we're just going to find ourselves later on in the season, we're going to struggle more and more against some tougher teams along the way. Yeah, definitely. Obviously a big mistake in the lead up to their first try. What happened there, time stood still, wasn't it? was just...

I think it was very much a simple mistake. We dropped off of three four tackles and you can't do that at It's very simple you've got to make up your front up tackles if not they're gonna punish you. Very big up front as well. It didn't look like they put it too much pay in the first half. Do you think you've got lucky?

I think we have a little bit but think actually looking at them when they're actually taking them all into contact they're not as dynamic, not as sort powerful as what you might first think. So yeah, we're looking good, we're looking positive and hopefully... The ref's already been in it six times, it's alright, don't worry about that, he can join in as well.

Yeah, second half I feel it's going to be, hopefully we come out and it's going to be different. But I think as long as we stick to what we've been doing in the first half and we lower the error count, which we spoke about at the beginning, then we will see ourselves through. You're making the kicks, that's positive as well. So when those pens go for you, you're making those points count and keeping that board ticking over.

Is there a favoured end here? Is there a favoured Petersfield end? Not really.

I'd probably say our favourite is the way we've been playing so far but actually with the conditions it's not much. Normally the wind is coming down that direction so that's where it lends itself, second half, pin the team back but actually there's not much wind around, there's a little bit of drizzle probably so actually I think whatever end we need to put points on the board. That's it. The thing is I think the front out contact's been pretty much there.

break that as you said break that line you're used to probably breaking that line the league below and you haven't been able to quite do that so do you think that's now the focus make sure you break that line and make that count on the first run? It's gotta be. Once we get through we've got to capitalise on exactly that we can't just run through and then just hope that person scores there are going to be people that are going to chop him down like we've seen in the first round so we've just got to learn that.

we need to follow up, need to get onto the person with the ball and literally hopefully as we come away with points every single time. How did the 3s were playing as well? you know how they got? They lost by one. In their first pre -season. That was against Christchurch, wasn't it? Yeah, Christchurch's 2s. Some of their 1s probably turned up. They had a cancellation the other day, they? I believe they had.

So actually they're a pure social team that get thrown together, they do a little bit of touch on a Thursday. pretty proud of the boys for first up. yeah, it's looking good, looking positive. We've got a twos next week and having a game so it's going to be good. Big second half then. Big second half. Good night, thank you.

Rugby Through The Leagues (17:32)
So we've got Charlie on from North Dorset, club captain. Hard day at the office there a little bit, mate, but probably left a little bit out there, is that a comment? Yeah, yeah, hard day at the office. think, yeah, long journey down for us, two newly promoted teams. We knew it was going to be hotly contested. think teams like us, we've got to make home our fortress. Coming into these leagues, which they definitely have. think, yeah, they were down to 12 man at one point, I think, right at the end. We just didn't take our chances there. So I think definitely lots to work on, but I'll you what.

Hard day at the office scoring 17 points, that's not that bad. And you took your chances as well, obviously they made a mistake in the first half and didn't make any tackles and you guys just walked through them. That's it. So there was probably other times that you could have possibly got there but 17 points away from home against a team on the up as you said. It's not a bad start of the season. Who you got next? We've got Chichester at home next.

That's a game you want to really put under. Obviously Chichester having ex Nat 3.

they've been this level for but they're not going to be any mugs. We've got to make sure that our little farm indoors sits our fortress. We've to keep that going. Hopefully it's a bit of slow start, a slower start than we wanted but let's hope for some drier weather and see. You've got many lads back next week, you've got a few away this week? A few away this week, we've got a few away next week but a few coming back. I think the scrum will be bit more oystered more than today but at the same time we're missing a few back so we'll have to see what's happening.

the season, part of the bus, make sure you ain't getting past the scrum. I think so, I think that's our super strength and that's what we've done the last few years, that's always been our threatening point, so why change when it's working for us? Yeah, you had many joining you from last year? Yeah, obviously where we're situated in North Dorset there's not much around, we're in the sticks, but we've had a few guys from Yeovil come down, a guy from Salisbury, a few guys from Blanford, so lot of local teams have seen what we're doing and what we're trying to

What's your opinion of the club? it on the right trajectory? Obviously you got promoted, you got a good set up and stuff? we were, post Covid we got, yeah, post Covid that, you know when they cut the league short, we got relegated down into level 8. So we were two seasons in level 7, now we're in level 6. So if we're not in the right direction I don't know what it is. I think we want to be in this level, I think this is probably where we would peak.

we would peak at but we just want to maintain and be coming to places like Petersfield is a lovely clubhouse. pitch out there as well. also you want to play new teams, new clubs, experience new places to go to so that's what we're all about. Brilliant, we had obviously Zach on earlier on from you guys, it seems to be a really keen DOR.

has he helped push the club in the right direction? Yeah absolutely, like fair play to him, he's his heart and soul into it. All of his spare time, you can ask his wife, he's a physio. All of his spare time's up here, credit to him. Last time we came up to this league we probably didn't plan very well for it, we kind of just went let's go the way we're, unless you do what we're doing, but we're trying to change things up now, bit of point of difference and see how we get on. quality.

absolute pleasure to talk to you mate. Go well for the season. Thank you mate, really appreciate it.

Rugby Through The Leagues (20:43)
So we've now got Nick on from Petersfield club captain or? Not club captain, he's injured at my mouth for doing it. okay, perfect. So, how do you think that went out there? 32 -17, first half, looked fairly comfortable. First 20 minutes was a rocky. Look, the start of a new season is always pretty tricky. We got a load of changes, all this sort of stuff, not any excuses. First half we created stuff.

We did and we probably put more our structure into place, second half was, I'm surprised your boys didn't fall asleep on the sideline, it was just scrappy. Did it feel like that on the pitch? A little bit to be honest, we were down to 12 men at one point, discipline was pretty poor, we made lot of mistakes but to be fair to the boys we showed a lot of dock, which is we sort of pride ourselves over at times like that. Obviously a couple of mistakes in the first half, first 20 minutes, first try you can see they kind of just switched off everyone.

Not the ideal situation. I spoke to Jamie before, the manager as well, and said that was kind

you expected to be. You probably left a lot out there, is that fair? I'd say that's definitely fair. And we spoke about half time, we felt that we were probably creating more chances than them, which weren't executing and finishing them off. And that was something we wanted to go into second half with, probably didn't work out quite as we wanted it to. But the fact that we're creating those chances is positive for us. Do you think you kind of got caught out by the weather? Seeing as we in September and you didn't expect it to start slipping. I bet that was like handing a bar of soap out there. We don't hide any secrets, we want to drive.

day we were all about. They probably don't, they're probably bit more physical. And when it was pissing down with rain I was like, what is going on here? But there go. Do you expect that to play out for the rest of summer up to the spring period or do you expect to hopefully hold that out and have a back -up plan or is that kind of where you're at? I know that we've got to adapt how we play.

street -wise especially in this this higher league yeah against those opposition little players on the pressure so we've got to learn to play the different way and adapt our game but also we're not afraid to go from a little giant post when it's on. Yeah, yeah, kicking game looked fairly solid today you obviously were able to pick out the right opportunities when it was available. I can't run so I've got to be able to kick. No, well this is it but you obviously spotted the right gaps there was a couple of times where they managed to intersect as well and managed to get that in is that kind of where you're going to exploit teams that are a little bit bigger and try and pick them

over the top and make sure you stretch them. Yeah we said we said in the warm -up that they're a big side we want to move them about yeah and unfortunately we couldn't do that with ball in hand today. So we had to pin corners we didn't think their backfield could be set as well as it could have been. So we definitely saw space and because of how greasy the ball was, was sort of not the option. A couple of decent 50 -22s dotted out.

which helped, but execution around the rest of the set plays was a little bit scruffy from your side, which you guys have pride yourself on, is that? Last season we were lucky we had such a dominant scrum. We know it's not going be as dominant in this league, there's no way. However, line out was pretty good from today, we got some nice ball, scrum probably wasn't exactly where wanted it to be, but I think we can't expect it be as dominant, but definitely it's been more solid from our point No, it's taking your opportunities when it's available as well, obviously having the experience

like Liam, obviously he's just strolling past. He did sort get stuck in the pitch at one point, I've already spoken to the groundsman, I thought he'd put quicksand in there for that.

I'll go and tell him that. No, that's it. I told the gradsman earlier he wasn't so happy. What a out there. It's lovely and we are so fortunate just how good our facilities are. The pitch, the changing rooms. Even the gym next door. It's unreal to be fair. So how long have been at Petersfield? So I've been here since the age of five. I left briefly for academy stuff, international stuff. But I came back here five, six years ago now. Nice. I love it. Where did you disappear off to? London Irish

bit, went over to Havant for some colt stuff and then ended up back here. Didn't work out Irish, was that when it went bust or was that? No, I was a little bit older than that, just wasn't good enough basically. Loads of my peers made it but hey I didn't. Did you kind of think that you were that old?

Obviously you've ended up here now, do you think that was your ceiling? To be fair, think from my point of view, when I sort got dropped from Irish and all that sort of stuff, rugby wasn't so much my life anymore. It came a point of, I can't complain about being here, I love it, I've got all my mates here, it's local to me, I live two minutes away. It's easy, it's fun and I'm getting better as a player, so while I'm doing that, rugby's not everything.

That's it. By the looks of it, you've got a good few young lads coming through the system as well.

Is that well nurtured? you get many colts in training and stuff like that? So it's sort of definitely something we're trying to increase. I've just taken over as head coach of the colts. we're definitely trying to put what we're doing in the senior set up into that colt set up. we're aware that probably the pinnacle at the moment, in Hampshire is Havant. There's no hiding it. Their academy set up is great. They bring loads of boys through constantly. And there's no hiding. We want to get to that stage where we're doing the same. So I actually coach

I'm the club president of the club in Spain. I coach under 16s. So if Petersfield want a little tour away in Spain, more than welcome anytime. long as the golf course nearby. There's loads of them. you ain't got to about that. Season ahead, what's your forecast? So we've got Tots next week, who we know are...

Big team. Big team and they've been in this league for ages, they've got loads of experience. We've got them at home again, which we're lucky. We're happy with two games at home on the bounce this season. I know it's really a but we are really going take each game as it comes to build into it. We know we've got to be better than we were out there today, especially for some these away fixtures against like some Winchester and those sort of teams. But I'm excited for where this group can go. We last year we were excited. Yeah, when I had Matt and Liam on earlier on in the pod.

said that this team isn't quite at their pinnacle yet so if you manage to add in the right direction you can't can't fault it. 32-17 on your first game in this league and probably left a lot out there as well. not a bad start to season. I'll take it. Really appreciate your time. Cheers mate.

Rugby Through The Leagues (26:56)
we've got Jamie back, end of the game mate, how do you think that happened? Obviously there was a bit of capitulation for the last ten minutes, is that fair?

I probably would agree, was very... the game kind of just went for the last 20. I don't think it went for either side. Both sides it fell apart. think probably down to a little bit of fitness, a little bit of obviously not playing at that level so far. yeah, it was a game. It was a game rugby. People lost their heads a little bit at the end. So we just need to, we need to go away, we need to actually look at it and go right.

where can we improve? And actually it's going to be that last 20 minutes of the training session and going right we need to make sure that we're fully switched on it. Making the right decisions as you said losing three players you're going to get penalised by a lot of bigger clubs and obviously this lot up front were big and I was talking to their captain on and he said that wasn't even their biggest pack he said they've got bigger to come back so you guys obviously fronted that up but if other teams are around they're going to pull

you apart if you keep losing players up front. How would you overcome that in training? What's the plan? How are you going to teach that to the lads to make sure they don't become a dickhead in the last 20 minutes? It's hard. It's their personality at this point of the day. You don't really want to be trained in that. I think it's basically doing a lot of decision making at the very end of sessions. Almost maybe doing games strategies, scenarios.

Right, we might be up, but let's manage the game. Do you think that's what you lost today, game management? Do you kind of think you lost your way a little bit? I think a little bit. don't think it was the scoreboard. I think it was just final 20, I think people just got tired and they just started making the wrong decisions. I think that's basically all it came down to. was just decision making.

times and actually sometimes it wasn't even critical. One of the yellow cards was up by, we were in there half by the 10. We don't need to be appealing for stuff, yeah? And I think that's where players personally have to sort of review this game and go, right.

what did I do well but actually where could I have made a difference and changed my decision. So is the VEO go out tomorrow and everyone sort of sits there and self -reflects and then you guys come and gather it back together? The VEO will be sort of uploaded tonight and obviously be sent out to the players and hopefully they do take that reflection time and sort of see where it could have been their positioning, could have been in the strategy that we have. But hopefully they look at it because obviously we've gone up a level.

players are going to have to actually review their performance and actually see where they can improve and where they can go. yeah, it's a big step. Other way, really positive mate. Really great start at home, obviously get another home game back to back which is perfect. Tots are going to be a bit more of challenge next week potentially? Yeah, I think it's got that little bit more local rivalry as well.

played their twos and threes along the years I've been here but we've never actually been at that level with their ones. Because they're Southampton it's a lot closer and most of the time they will turn up little bit fresher. Obviously North Dorset had a two hour journey here. It's not easy is it? And you're going right. They're going find it tough to come out and kick start. Weather worked against you guys and them as well. Obviously you wanted a ball out the back.

It's like throwing a bar of soap around out there. exactly. yeah, think next week is going to be a very different game. Yeah. And I think we've just got to go away. We've got to prep well, like every game. And we've just got to come back. And we've got to make sure that we hit the ground running from minute one to minute 80 next week. Yeah.

So big game next week then. Still positive for the season? yeah, still positive. We took away five points from a game that we obviously predicted and we thought it was going to be a lot closer. So we're very happy with that. You probably left two or three tries out there as well. Yeah, exactly. think it's going to be as the season goes on, you're going to have players that come in, players that come out.

but it's actually trying to keep that continuity so you actually start learning how people play again. I said to one of the coaches earlier, the starting backs line up hadn't actually had a pre -season together. that was the starting line up. They hadn't had any warm up to actually get to know people's pace again, their passing ability. So yeah, it's just going to be one of those things and hopefully it develops over time. Good season ahead, mate. Fingers crossed.

Appreciate it, talk to you very much. Cheers mate.

Rugby Through The Leagues (31:55)
Right, we've squirelled ourselves away on the balcony now to try and protect ourselves from the rain. For those that have obviously been part of the pod from the early doors, we've got Matt McLean back on. Matt, you've obviously kind of got a new role now. You can't have a big deal here.

On paper maybe, on paper. New DOR, is that correct? Yeah, so I've probably picked up the role and responsibilities of that back in March at the end of last season really. We've got a real keen vision within the club to try and transfer some of the senior style of rugby through the age groups. But obviously it's going to take some time and putting the foundations in with the colts first and then filtering it down from there. But to keep me busy it's all going well. I can imagine.

review of today? Obviously a good win, probably a little bit left out there as well? Yeah, think first and foremost the most important thing was the result and we've come away with five league points and we've restricted them to nothing. It's a long bus journey home for them with no points on the road despite their efforts and I think obviously very different to the previous two pre -season games that we played where the result wasn't the objective and it was more about performance and output and putting the processes together. think we had a couple of good hit outs.

with some difficult score lines but I think it stood us in good stead for today. yeah the result was perfect. Performance wise I think the second half was really disjointed. Compounded by some ill discipline and some decisions that went against us particularly up front at scrum time and we were down to 12 players at one point. However what I would say is whilst we were down to 12 players we didn't concede any points so what was really pleasing about that was that

We sort of dug in and showed a lot of donk and really good attitude and we sort of made it scrappy for them. I the weather probably played in your favour in that as well because they couldn't quite execute what they were trying to do against 12 men. Absolutely, I think once we'd gone down to 12 the weather helped us out but I think when it's 15 on 15 the weather's probably helping them out. We're a side that's traditionally known, particularly after last season, for wanting to move the ball about and play a high sort

tempo style of rugby and greasy conditions sort of dilute that a little bit really. But nevertheless I thought still in the first half I thought we were by far the better side but were poor in terms of recycling possession and being patient so it looked as if we wanted to try and score within two or three phases every time. sort of last season you had a lot of impact on first ball.

you probably expected the same this year. I think it's right to have the attitude to go for it. What we have to recognise is if we worked hard to break the line and get in behind and we're looking at 50 -50s, we have to hold on to the 50 -50s. We'll learn that throughout the course of the season. Hopefully we'll learn it quickly in the early part of the season so that we don't for foul that at some point against what is going to be some tricky opposition throughout the course of the season. Big game next week against Totts.

Thankfully again it's a home game for us and think that makes a big difference. If we can get some points out of that and hopefully maximum points with the weathers dry

that gives us a really good foundation in of which to build on for the forthcoming games where we're going to have sort of have some difficult trips away from home. you know, we'll try and bank on our home season and pick up what we can on the road. It's really difficult to determine what it is we're going to come up against. We just don't know what the quality is like. Obviously they were a decent side today, really big up front. They said that was their smallest pack available. Right, well that was the biggest pack we'd played a long time.

Thankfully that they were hopefully missing a couple of players up front. Obviously with that it means that they're not as mobile and possibly through the months of November to February there'll be some really difficult opposition for some teams. But it's all about us trying to take our chances while the weather's dry and play the brand of rugby that we want to play. Do you think today really made you prepared for those shitty winter months that we've got coming?

I'm not sure if he's prepared us for those winter months but I think what he probably has prepared maybe some more of the boys in the squad for is some tough encounters. think we're probably a little bit guilty of leaving our own hype a little bit off the back of last season. We won so many games, we didn't lose a league fixture and we won so many by quite considerable margins that think some people think that they can just turn up. The season was going to be a stroll. Yeah, and know, so it's about...

senior players then stepping up and making sure we grab hold of that and sort of say well you know we have to work hard first. was a couple of times today where you know we turned momentum around we're on the back foot we put a couple of decent kicks in and everybody's standing there you know clapping and laudering the kicks but nobody's followed the kick up and they throw a quick ball in and all of sudden they're on the counter -attack. I think you know as you progress through the league structures and you go up levels.

teams will be a little bit more cute in terms of how they play and we've got to be wise to that and follow good play up with making sure that we stop the opposition from taking any quick opportunities to get what I think that was pretty pronounced in the first try at they scored Everyone kind of switched off. Well yeah and they obviously had a couple of dangerous players there. 15 was an elusive runner. We probably just thought well that's alright we've cleared the lines a bit you know and we weren't connected in midfield and on the kick chase.

and we learnt really quickly that if you do that and they've got some decent players we're going to count as that they'll punish us and the lads score from 50 -60 metres out.

thought we dealt with him relatively well throughout the rest of the game. He had a couple of nice touches and couple of decent line breaks thereafter but as the game wore on I think we sort tightened up a bit on those After that wake -up call early on it was addressed wasn't it? But you can't probably leave that open for many other clubs within this league. Well no, because if you do it too often they'll keep taking those chances. 100%. But again it's a learning curve for us and it's a journey that we're on in terms of guess acclimatising to this new level of rugby that

rugby club has never been at before. So hopefully we'll get there sooner rather than later. But it's good to start the season with five points. Brilliant. what is your target? What's been sort of muted around, not said out loud? Well, I think Liam and I are particularly ambitious people. We're ambitious players, ambitious coaches.

we don't see why if we can piece things together. A lot of it depends on availability of course, know, and key players remain injury free. We can't challenge for those sort top two three spots. So, you know, whether it's, that's our goal, but it's not we won't sort of talk too much about it. We want people sort of... Do the business. Yeah, keeping their feet on the ground and nothing comes without the hard work. But what I was pleased with today was again while we were down to 12 men, some of that attitude and hard work come out.

and you can't coach effort so it was really good to see that. So Liam's obviously put on Instagram the other day that this is the last season. Did he misspell that last season? Yeah, well I think so. Having known Liam for some time, I think if we trawled through his history and social media posts, he would have said that it's his last season for the past five or six seasons.

I mean it could well be his last, it depends how we do to be fair but I think all the while that I'm playing and I sort of want to carry on playing again this and probably next I'll be in his ear to make sure that he carries on as well and he's got a few years on me to You got a little knock at a minute as well? Yeah so I picked up, it was last game of season when we played in that Papa John's fixture so I injured it early doors in that game.

it's just taken a bit of time. The recovery process was going a bit slower than what I'd hoped and what I'd expected when it got some scans on it and it just needed a bit of a clear out really. So hopefully only about six to eight weeks and then I'll get back by November -ish hopefully. Just in time for the rain and the wind. Matt, really appreciate your time again mate. Great to have you on again mate. Cheers mate. Thank you.

Rugby Through The Leagues (40:09)
Right, I've just got a Zach back on now, mate. How do you think that went? Yeah, it was tough. Tough as we thought. Scrum dominance was still there, same as last year, which was great. But for us, there's a few little key things to work on, which hopefully we can change that score back around by the time Petersfield come round to our place in a few months' time. Do you you left a little bit out there? Yeah, definitely so. I think the journey, the boys getting used to travelling this far, and just the game day management might not have quite been there.

But deaf in second half, only 10 .7 in the second half, was a big difference. The first half, first 20s especially, we might have still been in the coach a little bit. Something to look out for the boys. I think obviously not being able to capitalise on them down to 12, 12 men was probably crucial as well. 100%, yeah. Massively. Should have been looking to put points on there. We had two uncontested scrums right at the end there where they were down to say down to 12 players and couldn't finish. So yeah, something massive they had to work on and a lot of decision making to look at.

What's the plan for Tuesday then? Regather and just sort of sit there and figure it out or actually you've got game plans already in your head that you guys have got to go through? Yeah, the things to look at on Tuesday will be like I say, we'll get the video from this, the boys will see it tomorrow, we'll be looking at that, analysing it, the coaches will be on it and it'll be looking at just key little parts of the game where the decision making needs to be improved slightly and things like just that urgency and commitment to the course.

I think there's a lot of positives though mate. Really good platform you can generate and those backs, know you're a very forward heavy squad but your backs when they get space they can get space mate. No like I say it was great to see the scrum dominance was there and kept going and going. If anything not being horrible but we should have been absolutely crucifying them in the scrum. Get a few more cards, keep pushing them back and open out for the back. We've seen it at first.

Five, ten minutes, as soon as Tom got the ball, he was through. And we need see more of that. That's what we've seen last year, is getting the boys to realise that they can do it at this level as well. Pushing it and pushing it and pushing it and getting going for it. We had your captain on a minute ago.

he said that was probably your smallest pack available. Yeah, do it wrong, yeah. We were missing sort of two or three lumps today, which last year was our big ball carriers and it would be cases, I say, round a ruck and they would literally tear it up 10, 15 metres at a time and you'd be knocking teams back and we'd put them on a back foot and then I say that's when our speeds is that wide, cross on a line, cross on a whitewash.

Plenty to work on but I think you've got a good platform to go this season. Yeah, the boys, absolute hats off to them. They worked really hard this pre -season. We started in mid -June, been a long pre -season. The boys have worked really, really hard. New coaching set up.

The boys are saying, hats off to them, they've done so much and I just hope they stick together week in, week out, win, lose or draw as a team, keep committed to training and I say just keep putting these things in the practicing training and see what happens in week, because it will come. As soon as these training sessions keep flowing, the boys' commitment stays there in the heart.

into it. They scored 32 -17, they've been our way. 17 points away from home up here is not a bad outing mate. No, You've done well there. two and a half hours back on the coach. social after is going to be pretty decent. The points are buzzing for it. Many debutants, is there many that are actually going to be alive on the way home? Yeah, we've got four debutants.

So yeah, there's going to be some boys, there's going to be some beer flowing. There'll probably be some karaoke. And yeah, like I say, win, lose or draw, always on the beers. It's all about the social and keeping the boys morale up. And I say today, 17 points away from home, enough that we've talked about at all. You've done really well. And yeah, thank you for Petersfield for a great day. No, brilliant. Top Man. Thank you very much. Thank you mate.

Carl (43:46)
Well, that brings yet another episode to an end. Just wanted to say thank you to everyone that's joined, everyone that's been involved. The Grassroots Rugby series seems to have gone really well. A lot of people enjoyed it. So hopefully we can pick that up when we get back out to Spain or when we potentially visit back at some point. we've got next week, we've managed to get Darragh Coyle over. We actually attempted the recording many moons ago.

But Darragh was over in Australia. He's done a stint over there with the University of Sydney. He works for Terenaire College as well, and he's part of the old Wesley setup. So we want to try and understand that all Ireland League over there, make sure that we can try and spread that word as far as possible. Really top bloke, really knowledgeable about the game, really passionate. And it's a really, really good conversation about Irish rugby.

where he'd come over to England and was able to give other opportunities and then how he's now managed to go over to Australia for a four month stint to open his doors and open his mind to other options as a coach. So a really, really top grassroots bloke coming on to talk about Irish rugby and where he's been and how the Australian game differs as well. So really good, really good one. Managed to play with a good few players when he was at college as well.

self -confessed that he's not, he wasn't the greatest player so he's that's why he went straight into coaching as early as possible but it's it's a really top top interview as well so really glad to get this one going so hopefully you love this one you'll love the next one and the ones after don't forget to get involved in that competition and finally from me thank you and goodbye

Rugby Through The Leagues (45:28)
Go on! Go on!

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