'We're not the All Blacks just yet' insists Thomson
You could forgive Marlow's players for getting a little carried away after Saturday's encouraging 30-7 victory over Wallingford at Riverwoods.
However, captain Ian Thomson is doing his best to keep their feet on the ground, telling them they’re ‘not the All Blacks just yet' in his post-match interview with the Advertiser.
For much of Saturday's contest, Marlow looked a class apart from their visitors, scoring four tries to kick off their Counties 1 Tribute Southern North season with a bonus point win. And in truth, they should have added to their points tally.
They were also resolute in defence, repelling Wallingford on countless occasions and blunting the power of the visitors' forward pack. That said, Thomson said he and the players were berating themselves at the break for allowing Wallingford to move through 10 phases to score their only try of the game before halftime. That, however, was the only defensive blot on an otherwise faultless copybook and, having gelled a little more from last season and worked on their fitness in the summer, they look to have all the qualities needed for a promotion challenge.
“I thought we were a bit rusty,” said blindside flanker and captain, Thomson. “But we were able to take control, and the micro-communications between the team are starting to gel a bit more.
“Particularly in comparison with previous seasons.
“We've got a lightning quick backline who are in a learning curve but are doing very well.
“I feel we executed well, and the score reflected how dominant we were. I think we just need to sharpen up and then our season will really take off.
“Our defence we need to be more aggressive and sharper, but I was proud of the boys.
“We kept beating ourselves up about that try that they scored, they kept picking up and going and went through 10 phases to get under the posts. That's something that we tightened up on in the second half.
“We tried to add a bit more aggression and nous into our play and were able to steal the ball back.
“We're not quite All Blacks yet, but I think we need to work at keeping our foot on the throttle, we have a tendency here at Marlow to maybe start thinking about next week.”
He added: “We've been working on fitness a lot, several players gave feedback over the summer that it was something we needed to work on, so we are doing. I think it could be better, and, personally, it's something I'm going to be working on to try and get even fitter.”
Maybe it’s a little premature to talk about promotion after only one home game, and perhaps Saturday's game at Milton Keynes will be a more useful barometer of how much Rory Greenslade-Jones' side have progressed.
Milton Keynes gave Marlow an 'awful time' last season, winning at Riverwoods before beating them 50-17 on their own turf in March. Marlow are set to travel without half a dozen players who featured against Wallingford, but Thomson is expecting a much improved away display.
“We have Milton Keynes away, who gave us an awful time last time,” added Thomson.
“We were heavily beaten there last season with a scratch team. We had a load of forwards playing in the backs, but I'm sure it will be different next week and hopefully we can get a better result.”