Simon unhappy with performance against Teignmouth

Simon Morrell the Bridgwater and Albion head coach has made it quite clear that he was unhappy with the way that the team played on Saturday when they were beaten 13-18 at home by Teignmouth the club he previously coached.

Simon said: “Post reaction from Teignmouth has and will be brutal. I have replayed this game over and over and to be honest my assessment is, this was a big step backwards.

“Perhaps more disappointing was the boys didn’t seem to ‘want it’ as much as them.

“I felt we were pretty good for the first 20 minutes, exiting well, imposing ourselves on them defensively and Stu Heal mixed things up in the middle third.

“Despite conceding the softest try of the season, we soon found ourselves camped in Teignmouth’s third. As mentioned this was a result of all of the above (it’s always a chain reaction).”

Simon went on: “What followed was absolutely pivotal to the outcome of the game. Several clean Linebreaks were wasted, a forward pass with the try line beckoning and to top it off a mindless penalty gifting Teignmouth an easy exit (mindless penalties added to note pad).

“The fact that we acquired 13 points from all this dominance was unacceptable. To top it off, we handed over another gift of a try right on half time and guess who has the momentum now?”

The head coach continued: “The second half was shambolic at best. If we go back to that golden chain of exit well, squeeze the opposition set piece; understand the need to mix up your middle at dare I say it kick to compete.

“Well we did none off that for the entire second half. Instead we resorted to what can only be described as ‘headless chicken’ mode. We ran everything and became very predictable. We also came off second best in every collision at the gain line and Teignmouth’s backrow taught us a lesson at the breakdown.

“Chuck two yellows into the mix and you have the perfect example of how not to approach a 40 minute half.

Looking ahead Simon said: “Thankfully, we really do have a clear direction for the next two weeks in training.  We all know that we can be 60% better than this. All of the above is a relative quick fix.

“In actual fact, if the boys read this I am sure we will see a marked improvement to our game management next time out.

“The big transformation, for us to really consider ourselves a top five side comes from the players themselves. They own their behaviour on the park and they own their performance. We will take our analysis to the next level to support the boys and selection will now be based entirely on data and training attendance.

“At present we can only guess how many Linebreaks, dominant tackles,  soak tackles,  critical errors, missed tackles and pens a player makes. Over the course of a game they become quite hazy and players and coaches alike have a distorted view on things.

Simon added: “Thankfully that is now a thing of the past and the hope is that players really respond to the added sense of monitoring and it’s inevitable impact of selection.”

Bridgwater are without a game this coming Saturday and the following weekend trav

Category: 1st XV News, Previews / Reports -XV