Walsall RFC Ltd

Walsall v Moseley

Sunday 26th February 2017

Moseley visited Delves Road today to compete in a good spirited game. The pitch was dry but tacky with a light dusting of mud. A small side wind tried to disrupt the lineouts but it was a good game for the spectator.

With it being half term a few players were asked to play out of position, all credit to them they did themselves proud. Tom Harris ( scrum half ) Arnold Addai ( outside centre ) Filip Kozlowski ( full back ).

The game got underway and saw Walsall start the quickest and brightest. It took just 3 mins to score the first try, after some good support play that saw Joe Birch take the ball in hand and power forwards towards the posts. Joe being Joe relished the challenge and gladly delivered the goods touching down. He also converted the extra 2. 7-0 to Walsall.

Walsall were showing great awareness and savvy when they had the ball. Being very economical at times with their possession. It took just 4 mins for the next try. After 6 phases of good recycled ball the Bandits worked well to get the ball from a quick ruck into midfield for Lewis Hawkins to feed Joe Birch through for his second try of the game. Joe took the ball at pace and used good footwork and power to crash over. Conversion missed. 12-0 Walsall

Moseley then seemed to capitalise on the home team switching off the a split second during defensive duties. Missing a couple of tackles and not organising the pillar defence well enough. Moseley worked the ball out wide on the left to score. 12-5

Walsall then had a moment under the posts to reflect on how the defence failed. And once again they had the answers. Which is a positive.

Walsall started strongly from the re-start. The forwards made light work of a rumble from deep in Walsall’s half, resulting in Jordan Smith carrying the ball directly up field. He ran 30 metres towards the tryline only to be held up short of the line. Fortunately Jordan managed to offload it to a support runner. And Joe Birch Had the pleasure of scoring from a short distance. Conversion missed. 17-5

This is why we say support play in attack is vital. After that there was some notable skill sets on display, especially from Oliver Topham for his tireless tackling and quick thinking jackling. This managed to win a few penalties today. Forging up the left hand side of the pitch, notably was an excellent run up the left wing from Dmitri Morrison. Using a mixture of power, footwork and gas. He managed to gain massive yards and was unlucky not to cap it off with a try.

Half time 17-5

Walsall made a three changes ready for the second half. We discussed the need for tighter defence patterns around the ruck area. And attacking support play.

The second half got under way once again the home team started strongly. Each player wanted to carry the ball for the team and offload it to a supporting player, it was poetry in motion at times. Running lines were sharper around the contact areas today. The vision from the team to spot weak defensive areas was sublime at times. The first receiver was moving with purpose, when it was the results were evident to see. The first try after the break saw a well worked ruck defence and offload to the first receiver and paid dividends with a good team try. The ball got shipped out to Ryan Potter to use self belief and power to dart between defenders and crash over for his first try of the game. Conversion missed. 22-5

The match then seemed to be equal, both teams attacked and defended really well. Moseley decided it was their turn the screw and score one for the away team. converted. 22-12

The Bandits rallied together and decided to push the team gearbox up a notch. Each player dug deep and rolled his sleeves up, resulting in wave after wave of good territory gains resulting in seeing three good passes reaching Joe Birch to take the ball on a secure the points again near the left hand post. Tom Harris converted for 2 more points. 29-12

With it being a wholesome squad effort the Bandits forged ahead once again pressuring any tiny mistake made by Moseley. The effort shown by all on the pitch was a credit to them. It took another 7 mins for the team to dominate the game, squeezing the space that Moseley squandered whilst attacking. Walsall turned over Moseley’s ball resulting in a quick attack by half a dozen players. Ball managed to find it way out to Joe Birch again, he in turn took the bull by the horns and demolished the Moseley defence once again beating 3 half tackles to power over. Conversion missed. 34-12

Moseley kicked the re-start off, Walsall made ground up the midfield only to see the ball turned over because of slow support at the ruck. This resulted in Moseley shipping it out to their left winger who was strong, he broke 4 half hearted tackles and scored under the posts. Conversion made. 34-19

The last word and try came from Walsall, it started on Moseley’s 10 metre line with the forwards taking the ball up to the 22. Then the ruck platform was steadied for Ryan Potter to be the first receiver and make good ground powering around the left side of the defence scoring under the posts.  Conversion by Joe Birch. 41-19 that was the last kick of the game.

Full time Walsall 41- Moseley 19

We thank Bill and Moseley for the game today.

A massive effort by the whole squad today was evident for all to see, there are things to work on. Pillar defence and support play attacking.

Positives were,

The scrums, lineouts and first receive moving taking that first pass.

We wish speedy recoveries to , Luke Cox ( back injury ) Jordan Smith ( Knee injury ) and Anthony Smith ( Broken wrist ) get well soon Anthony.

See you all Wednesday night 6:30pm.

Your biggest fans enjoy watching you, keep smiling and enjoying your rugby!

Rob, James and Alex