Disappointing but Glimmers of Hope

This away fixture was always going to be tough as Ellesmere Port is another side full of Behemoths and Congleton have suffered against the bigger outfits so far this season. Congleton were simply never in this game. From the kick off, Ellesmere Port maintained possession for a full 6 minutes before Congleton finally ran out of defence and the home side went over for their first of 8 tries.
Ellesmere Port was simply the better side in all areas and their individual skills were more honed than Congleton’s. Given the changes at half back and the back row it was always going to be tough for those combinations to ‘click’ straight away and so it panned out. This was particularly evident at the breakdown where Ellesmere Port had the upper had with the uncanny ability to get the first support player’s hands on the ball and either turn it over or win a penalty.
Congleton continue to develop their structure and patterns but today, as last week, they were let down their individual skills rather than their phase play. On the occasions they made ground and got behind the defence a pass was sent wayward or dropped or the ensuing ruck was turned over. If players can focus on developing their handling skills they will be better able to exploit the talents in the team.
Congleton’s defensive shape was good overall – if it hadn’t been this would have been a 60+ points defeat. Ellesmere Port were very good at maintaining possession with their strong running and offload game usually resulting in Congleton having a narrow defence and, whilst brave, the visitors simply ran out of players or were tired and dropped off the important tackle. Interestingly, Congleton’s line speed in defence was generally good but it was not consistent and, because of that, it allowed the home team space and time to exploit.
One of Congleton’s positives in attack was that when they moved the ball accurately down the line to exploit the outside channel, they made significant ground. However, they were never able to make the most of this advantage much to the frustration of the Congleton Coach. When asked after the game how he felt he admitted he was hugely disappointed: “we were never in it” he said “quite frankly I take responsibility – if their individual skills are not up to it then it’s because we have not spent enough quality time developing them and that is going to change. We have a pattern they are becoming comfortable using but if some individuals cannot catch the ball or pass accurately then we may as well do something different”. He continued: “that said, although we have some challenges to work through, I really do have faith that this group of very young players will develop over the next season or so to become a really talented outfit”.