Issue 152

St Mary's humble Swansea

12th February 2007

Swansea were given a harsh lesson in clinical finishing by a rampant St. Mary's team on Wednesday afternoon. In a game captain Rich Watkins described as the "biggest league game of the season", Swansea fell short of the mark against the physical St. Mary's.

Lack of discipline cost Swansea as St Mary's took advantage of numbers in the second half to break through the line and create overlaps to pull the game out of reach.

It was St. Mary's who started far the better side and were ahead before Swansea had even woken up. After some good forward play, the ball was released to the backs and the fly half stepped inside unchallenged to score from 20 metres out. The kick was converted and Swansea were 7-0 down. It got worse 3 minutes later when, after more good work from the forwards, St. Mary's were awarded a penalty, which they gleefully converted.

Swansea regrouped and were soon on the scoreboard themselves when Adam Fothers converted a long range penalty to reduce the arrears. Swansea then had a good chance to get themselves back on level terms. For the first, and one of the last times, Swansea were able to spread the ball to their backs but, just as they broke the line, the referee called them back for a forward pass.

On the 20 minute mark Swansea were awarded another penalty, which was converted again by Fothers, and the confidence was beginning to flow.

It was then that we saw the first sign of indiscipline as a player from either side was sin binned for fighting as the referee looked to stamp his authority. Swansea struggled to get hold of the ball, but is testament to their magnificent defending that they kept St. Mary's at bay, and they eventually ran out of ideas.

With confidence high, Swansea began to dominate and a nice dart from scrum half Tom Unwin, followed by some neat handling by Neil Higgins and Luke Khan in the centre led to Rich Watkins finding space and showing his flair with a neat chip through, but the danger was snuffed out.

Watkins then missed with a drop goal attempt before Fothers converted his third penalty to put Swansea within a point and looking in control. Watkins then showed more evidence of his ability with a perfect grubber kick, but it was again snuffed out. The half ended in suitable fashion when a promising run from the St. Mary's winger was brought to a halt by a huge tackle from Higgins.

Swansea went in at half time full of confidence and favourites to go and win the match. All was looking good, the forwards had been formidable, even against the sizeable St. Mary's pack. The backs were also starting to flow, with the talismanic Rich Watkins at the heart of almost everything.

St. Mary's started the second half in a positive manner, driving at the Swansea line. However Swansea's magnificent forwards kept them at bay, desperately defending their own line at times. St. Mary's showed their intent by turning down a simple 3 points to opt for the scrum, but were again forced back.

15 minutes in, however, a slip in concentration allowed the St. Mary's centre to break through a weak challenge by winger Rob Evans and score under the posts and leave a simple conversion for 9-17.

Swansea responded well, forcing a penalty deep in the St. Mary's half, but, after good progress from the pack, they failed to spread it wide and the chance was gone. 2 minutes later they foraged again, but this time Watkins kick went astray.

St. Mary's made them pay for not converting their chances into points, however, and with 10 minutes left they put the game out of reach. A massive overlap on the left led to an easy score in the corner and Swansea were suddenly 3 scores behind.

Any chance of a miracle was ended when Ryan James was sin binned with 8 minutes left, and St. Mary's took full advantage, scoring again from a big overlap.

Two late sin bins couldn't take the shine off the St.

Mary's victory as they ended up comfortable winners at 9- 29. Swansea captain Rich Watkins claimed it was simply that St. Mary's were "faster out of the blocks", that brought them victory, and seemed disappointed with his teams failure to convert their chances. He did, however, reiterate that his team "showed how they can play" in the middle period of the game, despite not scoring a try, perhaps a pre-varsity warning!

Swansea will be delighted with their effort against a physically monstrous team, but will go away ruing missed chances, and will need to be more clinical as they look to future challenges.

Tom Mooney