Posts from the park | Down but not out: Injured Hong Kong skipper relishes seeing his boys front up to Russia
The first test is done and dusted and and the theme from that game unfortunately is "opportunity lost". Not only in terms of the end result of the game, but also in terms of what was happening out on the field.
The first test is done and dusted and and the theme from that game unfortunately is "opportunity lost". Not only in terms of the end result of the game, but also in terms of what was happening out on the field.
We had several opportunities to assert our game against Russia, but we came unstuck through handling errors and because we were unable to force our game on them in the right areas of the field.
Our analysis was bang on with what Russia would bring – a very physical pack which would play directly, forcefully and try to bully us around the park. The Russians lived up to expectations and we were not able to play with the width we desired.
It certainly was an eye-opening test match for the new caps, who are now familiar with what a massive step up it is in the intensity stakes from our domestic Premiership competition. In the test arena, mistakes you might get away with at club level are soon found out in a test match, and the Russians certainly capitalised on those and put our errors to the sword on Saturday night.
If we can control more of our ball and shape up in other areas ... we can really compete with Russia and just maybe cause an upset.
They won the kicking and contact area battle and, quite simply, made fewer errors than we did.
On a personal level it was a disappointing test for me, having to to taken off the field about five minutes into the second half. It turned out to be a bit more dramatic an experience than I had anticipated – being carried off on a stretcher. My ankle got trapped in a ruck and I heard a pop which gave me a bit of a shock and probably led to all the precautions that were taken.