Why, oh why, has this game had such an effect on me?

Was it the fact that we threw away a half time lead? Was it the fact we leaked 41 points for the second week running? Was it that we missed an awful lot of first up tackles and our defensive line was lazier than Mr Lazy from lazy town? Was it that we kept kicking straight to their best player that was quicker than Brian Habana and punished us every single time? Perhaps it was the “zombie boys” otherwise known as props and second rows who find it very difficult to do anything more than enjoy a coffee morning chat with one another on their gentle stroll in the vague direction of the next set piece !!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone that knows me at all will know it’s absolutely none of the above. After all we are very much a work in progress, we have at least 5 players with very little or no experience and there were actually some superb moments and performances. At our age group results are pretty much meaningless, it’s the performance and individual progression that’s important and to be fair there was actually plenty of that. No, the thing that mystifies, saddens, angers me is the disgraceful behaviour of a very few individuals. I am genuinely sick and tired of telling the same people the same stuff and having it thrown back in mine and their teammates faces. Passion is a wonderful thing however passion is not questioning a referee’s decision, being overtly negative or refusing to shake the oppositions, officials and teammates hands after the game. The behaviour of these guys is not welcome in rugby and is not welcome in our team. They know who they are and it changes now. Alternatively I will leave or they will. I apologise for possibly getting carried away but I can’t enjoy working around children with that mentality – I’ve tried everything else, sadly I’ve now had enough.

At this world cup England made history by becoming the first hosting nation to leave the competition in the pool stages. Personally I don’t think things are half as bad as people are making out, for me narrow margins, a sprinkle of bad luck and a couple of poor decisions on and off the pitch cost them dearly and they will now unfortunately carry that tag forever. Chris Robshaw will have to come to terms with living with that. When the final whistle blew on that damning result against Australia did he storm off in a mood? Did he throw his toys out of the pram and blame his teammates? Was he rude and obnoxious to the officials? No. Just like every disappointed captain from every nation or any club that ever lost an important match he stood proud and dignified, thanked the officials, congratulated the opposition and shouldered the blame as a team together. The point is Chris isn’t an exception. 99% of rugby matches will end in exactly the same manner, obviously the world’s media aren’t preying on their every world. But when the game is done, winning or losing, you afford respect to all involved. That’s why it’s such an amazing sport. To me, if you don’t get that, you don’t get rugby, so it’s just not the game for you.

It’s such a shame to spend so much time on the negatives, but poor behaviour and attitude is like a disease, it’s infectious and if you don’t get rid of it, it will destroy any enjoyment and success in the future. We genuinely need to manage our expectations, evaluate what’s actually important to us and what we want from the game of rugby because some of you are seriously misguided at the moment.

So on to the good stuff. Apparently “Golden Nuggets” is the new breakfast of choice as Woody ran rampant, having the game of his life – wonderful to see. Finn was a “man mountain” at 13 putting in some” boshtastic” tackles. Jarred played his first ever game and didn’t put a foot wrong. The rucking in the 1st half was unbelievable giving us a fantastic attacking platform and pinning back North Petherton for long periods of the half, unfortunately too often we ran back into trouble when the space may well have been the better option.

I think last week’s result flattered us slightly and although there were many positives to be taken we were soundly given a lesson in U13’s rugby by a very good Cleve side. This week however I think the tables were turned as I believe the score line was more flattering to our visitors. Although they were definitely the stronger side I think we were better value than the deficit suggests. The difference (apart from defensive line and tackling) was they were very good at taking their chances whilst we seemed to make the wrong decisions – experience will change that I promise.

Finally - In light of recent events please find “The Parent & Player Charter” on this website. From the home page navigate to – Information – Documents – U13’s. Download the document, print off, read and understand together, sign and keep. Please let me know you have read and understood this for my records. Under general documents you will find further reading – RFU Fair Play Codes. I would really appreciate you all take the time to do this for me please. Thank-you.