Ah, what could have been. It has been a familiar story for this team that they start slowly and in this game that (along with some moments of good fortune for the opposition) meant that we were four tries down before we really got going. However, we finished the first half in the ascendancy and after the interval the balance of play swung in our favour. Finchley's defence was robust (some might say routinely offside but you have to play the referee!) but we were consistently asking questions and were ultimately rewarded with two further unanswered tries.

The boys will obviously be disappointed to lose a game they could have won. After the game we talked about what went well and what didn't and it was encouraging to see that the boys were able to identify aspects of both. There were a lot of errors and some poor decision-making but these are learning opportunities for them which we will be keen to see them take on board in training and in future matches. In addition we need to continue to work on accuracy and execution throughout the game and especially at the lineout. However, there were also a lot of positives; our breakdown work was good, our scrum solid, our defence much stronger than in the past and the boys never gave up the fight, with a noticeable improvement in our desire to compete with aggression and intensity from the start of the second half. While the scoreline went against us today, the boys (and coaches!) know where to focus to improve and we will come back stronger!

The Veo match video can be found here