One of the issues with watching a game after a pre-match lunch is that it tends to be viewed through an alcoholic haze. No amount of red wine could put a rose- tinted view on the performance against Sheffield.
Nobody will convince me it was anywhere near good enough. Sheffield were good; positive, fluent and uncompromising, but the same squad was well beaten by Wharfedale last week, a side we comfortably dispatched the week before, so…
I don’t want to make this an opinion piece, but Ionians made some significant changes to the side that lost at Harrogate (some may have been enforced but not the ones that I am referring to. Look at the team and make your own mind up) and they were to the detriment of the side. “Experimenting” against second top of the division is different to against second bottom, even if the results ended up the same.
Whilst I’m having a go, this game had six yellow cards, three to each side, and five out of six, according to the match sheet, for foul play. That can’t be right. There wasn’t anything approaching naughty play. Sam Pocklington and Cam Burnhill carded for thuggery?? Unbelievable.
Anyway, let’s look at the match. Ionians were first out of the blocks and from the whistle went deep into the Sheffield 22. It lasted as long as snow in June. Ionians gave away a penalty and Sheffield cleared.
It was then all Sheffield. They played some really good rugby, forwards and backs linking well to keep the ball moving, and it was all too easy for the first try by Mat Drennan, who had an unopposed run in to the line.
Lewis Minikin pulled three points back for the hosts, but it was a brief interlude to the predominantly one way traffic. The visitors were just too much for Ionians as second-row, Archie Crapper, who was one of any number of Sheffield players lined up to score, accepted a pass to add the visitors second try.
It was half an hour before Ionians finally came to life. They finally produced a standard of play to match anything Sheffield had shown so far, but only had another Minikin three points to show for their effort.
The home side kept up the pressure and it resulted in the first yellow card to winger Cameron Catleugh. Ionians took play to within 10 yards of the line but failed to hold onto the ball and Sheffield cleared.
Within no time play was shifted 60 yards up field and Ionians were pressed into defending. For some unfathomable reason Sam Pocklington was yellow carded, soon to be joined by Josh Thundercliffe and Callum Posa, who were caught rolling about on the ground. Thirteen aside went to the break, with Sheffield holding an eight point advantage, 6 – 14.
The opening 10 minutes of the second half determined the result and ended the match as a contest.
Sheffield scored three tries in five minutes. The first two were to the twinkle toed winger, Christian Hooper, who skipped and jinked his way to the line, initially with a fine virtuoso effort and secondly aided by some pretty awful tackling.
Full-back George Castledine also benefited from lax defending, even though the movement and support play from Sheffield was top draw, to grab the third score of the bunch. At 6 -33 the game was won.
For the better part of half an hour it turned in to a damage limitation exercise. Ionians were largely successful thanks to the unrelenting work of the back row of Lucas Powell, Alan Hudson and George Mewburn, the latter pair in particular impressive.
Ionians only briefly offered a threat, a glimpse of their capabilities missed by a largely disinterested crowd, before Sheffield rubbed salt in the wounds and stamped their superiority with two late tries.
The first of them was lamentably simple; Elliott Fisher was allowed to run diagonally across field and away from too many Ionians players, without expecting or receiving any close attention on a sixty yard sprint to the line. He added the goal to his own score.
The final try was equally disappointing. A frankly appalling cross field kick within their own 22 (it actually went backwards) was re-gathered and Posa supported the initial break to sprint clear and dot down.
That was it, 6 -45. A solid, cohesive performance from the visitors to cement their second place standing in N2N. For Ionians possibly the most insipid attacking display of the season.