1st March 2014

Trentham 27 Congleton 12

Cheshire & South Lancashire 3

Great Character but Not Quite Enough

What a splendid game to watch. These were two committed sides with little to choose between them. Trentham needed the win to remain on top of the league and Congleton wanted to continue their encouraging performances since December. The away side were highly competitive and if it wasn’t for a couple of missed tackles they could have easily won.
Congleton smashed into the opposition from the off, forcing error after error. At the breakdown they were fierce, stealing Trentham’s ball regularly and, whilst they might have used the turnover ball more effectively, they managed to clear their lines or drive the ball forward. Congleton also had the edge at scrum time which allowed Somers at 8 to rampage down the blind.
Although a missed tackle and an unnecessary penalty gave Trentham an 8-0 lead, Congleton had chances of their own but a couple of missed overlaps and mismatches enabled Trentham to scramble and snuff out Congleton’s attack.
To onlookers, Trentham’s 3 tries to nil lead after 60 minutes was flattering but Congleton, as they have done in the past 4 or 5 matches, stepped up a gear and brought a real ferocity to the final 30 minutes. They smashed holes through the fringe defenders at the rucks and constantly crashed over the gain line in midfield. Trentham were rattled and began giving away penalties and were probably lucky not to be yellow carded. From one such penalty, Congleton quickly moved the ball to the backs where King was on hand to squeeze over in the corner for their first 5 pointer.
5 minutes later, Congleton’s now dominant pack, were held up just short of the line but Trentham had yet again infringed. The resulting penalty was taken quickly by Reardon who offloaded cleverly to Wood who screamed at his teammates to drive him to the line. Trentham gave away another penalty but quick witted Williams tapped and fed Davenport who was driven low over the line for a beautiful score.
Excitement was running high as the Congleton players sniffed possible victory. Alas it wasn’t to be as Trentham pushed the ball deep into the Congleton half from the restart and, with only a few minutes in the clock, found a hole straight through Congleton’s ruck which they exploited to secure the win.
There were massive positives this afternoon. The team had taken the league leaders to the wire through their passion, ferocity and mental strength. Countless times they put Trentham under pressure to force handling errors or to claim the turnover ball at the ruck. Broderick stepping in 9 this week did well in controlling the forwards in attack and defence.
Congleton are still developing but if they can be more clinical when scoring opportunities arise then they will be in the mix for the top spots next season. As the backs become more adept at scanning what is in front of them in the wider channels and communicating it inwards, they will be scoring 3 or 4 more tries a game. In addition, whilst the decision making was on the whole good, there were opportunities to move the ball away from contact once they had turned it over. Some of the little things players worked on early in the season need to be refreshed. For example, some footwork before contact to give that extra metre of go-forward.
After the game Coach Burkard commented “when we put pace on the ball we were magnificent – the quick taps that led to tries were testament to that. We do need to be a little more aware of the space – there was plenty in the wide channels to exploit – and work smarter and harder in getting the ball there. I thought Reardon captained brilliantly today. His enthusiasm and determination combined with real inner steel got people working around him and, in the midfield, Matt King was regal and was, with Wood, a real handful.”