I thought set piece went well for us and we did well at defending the strong Thorne Maul. When we did get the ball thought we kicked away too much possession when we should have kept it in hand to establish an attacking base and when we didnt kick it we often looked rushed as if we were trying too hard to force the game (possible nerves). Thorn seemed to have a game plan of getting back row out wide in defense to help the backs and coming up fast with sweeper behind to cover the chip over, which hey did effectively. To counter this we needed to run though phases until we sucked that back row in and gained quick ball at which point we could have pulled the trigger but it never seemed to happen. As with the last few games with Thorne it was very close with defense on top from both sides and in the last two games we have got the breakaway try to secure the win but this time round it was Thornes time with a great interception and then a nice pass from the second row.
A couple of occasions were we had a chance of a try scoring pass and it went forward (some days these all come off and some days they don't and also two occasions were we seemed to make a clean break through the line after Thorne committed a penalty and on both occasions the ref blew and pulled us back to award us the pen which was frustrating but i can only assume he spotted something we had done so went back to first pen as prior to these he had played out some long periods of advantage.
Overall a close but scrappy game which Thorne edged and deserved their victory, but close and if like the last couple of games we had had the bounce of the ball we could have stolen it.
