Giles won’t lose heart despite Blues’ poor start

RUGBY UNION ALEXANDER HANNAH

MACCLESFIELD head coach Giles Heagerty refused to be completely negative as his side lost their fifth game from five this season when they travelled to the Northern Echo Arena to face Darlington Mowden Park.

“We played our best rugby of the season for 40 minutes, but the harsh reality of National One is that if you give more than 10 penalties away you’ll lose the game – we gave away nine in 20 minutes.”

The Blues were very impressive in the first half and deserved to have some sort of score on the card by the mid-way point. But good defence and a lack of killer instinct allowed the home team to go in at half-time 10-0 up, and they ended up winning 41-12.

“We talked before the game about how we hadn’t really started and we showed what we’re capable of, we just lacked a little bit of composure in the red zone, there were loose passes and knock-ons,” Heagerty (right) added.

“If we cut those and the discipline issues out then we look like we’re in good shape.

“We should have been 10-7 down or better at half-time. We had three clear opportunities in the first half and we just didn’t convert. It doesn’t really reflect the game but you’ve got to give credit to how clinical Darlington were, they took their opportunities, we didn’t.”

The Blues host Tynedale at Priory Park this Saturday, a game which is sure to be another tough test as they have only lost once.

Heagerty knows what to expect from the visitors but will be asking his players to concentrate on their own performance, adding: “They’ll be very strong at the set piece, but we just have to get away from worrying about the opposition and concentrate on ourselves, we’ve shown this week how much we can improve, we now need to move forward and improve further.

“We have to come in on Tuesday and get better, we just have to keep improving and building.”