Casson: It’s not game over, we can hurt them
YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE centre Tom Casson has refused to concede defeat in the battle to win promotion to the Premiership.
A 18-29 defeat at home to London Irish in the first leg of the Championship playoff final has left the Leeds-based club with a mountain to climb going into the return match at the Madejski Stadium on Wednesday.
However, Casson, one of Carnegie’s most impressive performers on the night, believes they have enough ammunition to overturn the 11-point deficit and give departing head coach Bryan Redpath a dream send-off.
“We’re a bit frustrated really because we went in with a plan that we’d been practising all week and I think by the end we started to go away from that,” the 27-year-old said.
“We didn’t look after the pill at the back end of the second half and they did well pinning us back.
“But we are still positive going into next week, we know we can hurt them now. We didn’t fire all our shots which is the best thing. We blew some chances in the first 60 and we can derive a bit of confidence from that.
“It’s not game over – that’s the best thing about having another game, we know there is another opportunity and we’ll stay confident and give it our best.”
Cheered on by their best crowd for four years, admittedly with large swathes of green in the stands, Carnegie fed off the 4,126 present at Headingley to lead 15-13 at the break thanks to a close-range try from Mike Mayhew and a peach of a score from Jonah Holmes, which took the Leicester-bound wing’s tally for the season to 15.
Former Harlequins centre Casson was involved in the move and was prominent in other attacks in his first start for nearly two months.
“I’ve had a fair few injuries, all contact injuries, throughout my career and this season has been the same with a rib and neck problem, but I’m not going to change my style of rugby,” the former Sedburgh pupil said.
Brought back into the side because of an injury to Supporters’ Player of the Year Andrew Forsyth, Casson brought a physical presence to the Carnegie midfield and is looking forward to continuing his partnership with Pete Lucock next season.
“Pete’s a quality player,” he said. “Andrew Forsyth’s also going to be here and then there’s Max Wright, who’s away with the U20s. He’s a hot prospect.
“With the strength of squad we’ve got, we know that any 15 will do a job.”