Blues pay for poor discipline
BLUES coach Giles Heagerty felt his team’s ill discipline in certain areas of the game cost them victory against Otley at the weekend.
The Blues had not played for the previous two weekends while Otley were heavily beaten at Tynedale the previous week, so form coming into this one was fairly even, despite the Blues sitting three places above the Yorkshire outfit going into the game.
The hosts started the better in terms of territory and possession but the Blues’ defence was defiant, holding off multiple multi-phase attacks at the expense of just three points kicked by fly half Ben Smith in the 11th minute.
The Blues did enter the Otley half but allowed them easy outs each time, giving away soft penalties and turnovers.
Then, in the 14th minute, the Macclesfield kick chase was caught cold by the pacy Karim Nasir who broke down the right wing having found the Blues short of numbers.
The Blues scrambled, giving a penalty away and from the lineout in the corner Tom O’Donnell picked his way over after a sacked maul, which, along with the conversion, stretched the lead to 10-0.
Both teams wasted possession at times with poor handling errors, losing the ball in contact while the scrum was pretty even despite the Blues’ dominance in that area against high fliers Tynedale and Hinckley.
Just when the visitors thought they had found some territory on the edge of the Otley ’22, the ball spilled out the side of a Macc ruck and Mark Barlow took advantage of the open ground in front of him, breaking down the right again and galloping into the 22. One phase later Nasir went over, meeting little resistance on the way, making it 15-0 with 23 minutes played.
Otley played their way into the Macclesfield red zone again soon after and, but for second row Declan Dunn spilling the ball over the line when he looked certain to score, the lead would have been greater.
Credit must be paid to Franky Barker, who appeared to dislodge the ball from under Dunn’s arm.
The onslaught continued as another penalty given away inside the Macc 40 metre line gave the home side another opportunity to drive for the line, but the men in black couldn’t convert thanks to an excellent scramble defence and an incredible turnover by Lewis Barker on his own try line.
For the remainder of the half the possession was by the Blue shirted side not the Black as the Cheshire side managed to wrestle back territory.
In the 35th minute the ball was moved wide after a couple of gainline carries, with exciting winger Charlie Reed finding the gap. Full of beans after his midweek appearance for the Sale Jets at Franklins Gardens, he strode into the red zone beating three men along the way and offloaded to Tom Mantell.
Much has been made of the impressive forwards in the current season, despite results.
The first try came from good carries from the forwards laying the platform for the backs to break, and it was the forwards who did the same again as a huge maul into the opposition 22 put the defence on the backfoot long enough to allow the backs to move the ball wide, pick off the defenders and find Myles Hall, who scored in the corner. Half time and the home side led by three points – 15-12.
Straight after the break the Blues looked to pick up where they left off, with Charlie Reed again involved with a moment of supreme skill chipping over the defensive line and re-gathering the ball from the flailing Max Johnston. He offloaded to Tom Burden, who carried to 12 metres short of the line, and two phases later Lewis Barker, playing at 13, found a hole to exploit and score in the 45th minute to make it 17-15.
It seemed as if the visitors had found themselves again and were looking to take the game away from their hosts – but minutes later they were trapped on the edge of their own 22 and penalised for holding on, allowing Ben Smith to restore the lead at 18-17.
Macclesfield continued to dominate the territory with a strong tactical kicking game through the likes of Nick Allsop, but they lacked cutting edge with ball in hand, the breakdown area not always fully protected and too much ball not going to hand.
Reed missed a shot at goal that might have eased the pressure on 65 minutes after Barker went off with a dead leg and ultimately the inability to get that fourth try proved to be costly.
The game turned scrappy as both teams struggled to maintain possession, largely just trading blows in between the two 22s, but it was Macc who blinked first in that game of chicken.
Tom Burden was unlucky enough to be pinned in the ruck after a tackle and even though the Blues managed to diffuse the resulting maul in the corner, a silly handling error from the next scrum gave the men in black the put in under the posts.
Left wing Alexander Beaumont went over in the corner after a decent push from the Otley forwards – 23-17 with six minutes to play.
The last play of the game involved a 12-phase probing advance from the Blues’ own 22 but they couldn’t through.
The Blues appeared to try and mix up the play between using their strong forward pack in a direct manner while also trying to throw it around, going to width early in phase play while Otley looked quite most dangerous in broken play and turnover ball but they held firm.
The Macclesfield attack still looks like it has legs to grow and although the finger could be cast at the referee at times, the breakdown area was often too messy to generate quick ball to play off making it harder for the wide men when the ball got there.
Having said that, on the three occasions the Blues got front foot ball they scored and on another day, with a bit more accuracy and better decision making, this result could have looked very different.
But with the weather a major factor in how much the running game can be played over the next couple of months, the Blues certainly have the pack to front up.
Heagerty said: “We didn’t deserve to win, that is the reality of it.
“Yes we did some very good things in attack and some of our defence was excellent, but ill discipline in terms of giving penalties away, ill discipline in terms of decision making, handling, missed tackles, all of the above, and Otley have deserved to get the win.” find a way