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Post Match with John

Tuesday 22nd March 2011

It's taken me a few days to get over the weekends loss to Swinton after we conceded 46 points in the 80 minutes, which is just not acceptable. As everybody knows, our home form last season was very good, but we can't sit back and rest on our laurels and hope that in 2011, this will get us through the season, because it won't. It was obvious to everybody who witnessed Sundays loss that we simply did not want to defend in the right manner, and no matter how much training you do, having such a flippant attitude to defence will always come back to bite you, as it did with us.

I thought with the ball, as I've said time and time again, we were very good, and other than some unforced errors at unfortunate times, we tested Swinton to their limits. I felt we completed our sets reasonably well and I'd say for the majority of the game, we played with control and stuck to our game plan. Defensively however, it was a completely different story.

As with all opponents that we face, I look at the opposing players extensively, and give our lads as much information as they need to know, in order to highlight their threats with the ball. Something that was done prior to the Swinton game. But I can't make excuses for individuals who simply failed to prepare in an acceptable manner, and there were a handful of our team that fell drastically short of my expectations and the expectations of their team mates.

I can't accept conceding 46 points at home and I won't accept conceding 46 points at home which is why I hope to be able to reinforce the squad with the signings of Wayne McHugh and Danny Ekis in the next few days. If they come through Wednesday night's training session then I will be putting them straight into the team for the visit this week of London Skolars. Some of the players have consistently performed and continue to give 100% in every game despite carrying injuries, and it is these lads that I feel most sorry for when others fail to apply themselves in the same way.

As a coach, it is my job to improve the players' skill levels, which is something that I take personal pride in, but one thing that can be immensely frustrating from my point of view is having talented players that consistently fail in their own personal preparation. There isn't an awful lot that I can do as a coach in that respect, as I cannot be with these players every hour of the day, and ultimately it is down to their own attitude, but one thing that I can make sure of, is that it won't be something that I will put up with for long, because I owe more than that to the players that put their bodies on the line week in week out.