Nottingham Outlaws played Beverley on Saturday, coming off a run of nine defeats. I got there ten minutes after kick off and they were already ten points down, having been undone twice by cross field kicks.
The trouble is that the lads from Yorkshire, even the weightier ones (and at least two of them were built like competitive eaters rather than athletes), grow up with Rugby League, but many of our team tend to be tactically naive. As you can see from the table, they can score tries, despite this. Unfortunately, we can’t stop the opposition from scoring, and often help them by dropping the ball.
Despite the run of defeats we are still putting a team out every week. That’s more than you can say for one of the other teams, which has now dropped out.
I’ll leave it to the match report to give details. If you think it’s critical of the referee, I assure you it’s mild compared to the comments made by people from both sides on Saturday.
I don’t normally have a go at refs as they do a tough job and there would be no games without them. Despite having qualified as a ref in both codes I am actually incapable of thinking, seeing, running, deciding and whistling at the same time and admire anyone who can.
However, the referee did not have a great day, failing to play advantage, missing several infringements and penalising several imagined infringements. He also made a mess of the timekeeping. To be fair though, I have seen far worse.
It was good in parts (we led twice), it only rained part of the time and everyone likes a good moan at the ref. Plus we got a chance to build character, even if we would have preferred to win.
And that’s about it – just another average Saturday for the amateur sportsmen of Britain.
As an ex and very poor Rugby Union ref, I have every sympathy with refs but that has never stopped me shouting at them. A man has to have some fun when his team is losing,
When it comes from another referee it’s “feedback”. and should be encouraged (as should advice on spectacles), as it helps raise standards.
They need to try harder 🙂
I’ll pass that on. 🙂
Make sure its not a hospital pass
I’ll have to give that a ROFL for excellence in puncraft, even at the risk of sounding like a young person. 🙂
Dammit! I had to look that up 🙂
🙂
Disappointing! Onward, ho?
Oh yes, on we go! 😉