Lessons From Alex Sanderson

TOBRIDGE JUDDIANs V CANTERBURY

Recently I shared a clip with the team of Alex Sanderson talking after Sale’s defeat at Quins. Going into the game Sale were six wins from seven and top of the premiership. That evening they lost by 30 points. He sums up rugby well for me; he says that if you aren’t right in the top two inches, if you’re off by only a small amount you are miles off it on the scoreboard. That was also the tale of our Saturday. Against a very motivated 4th in the league, we didn’t match their intensity for 50 minutes and conceded seven tries. At home that is unacceptable regardless of how good an opposition team is and in front of our home supporters it wasn’t good enough. Our late rally, scoring four unanswered tries of our own, shows what we are capable of but by that point we had left ourselves too much to do.

This weekend’s fixture needs very little introduction, as most derbies don’t, and the lesson from Henley has to be that we need to turn up ready to work for each other, and the club, from the first minute to the last, that’s the only way you can earn a win in this league. The players know what is required; our week has been spent preparing for the first whistle tomorrow.

The Pilgrims reached the halfway point of their season with their convincing victory over Bromley. With eleven wins out of eleven, and only one point short of maximum. Their introduction to Counties 1 has been impressive to say the least. Who doesn’t love a Friday night game and Thanet visit the Marine travel ground this evening looking to break the Pilgrims unbeaten run. Two Christmas crackers in one weekend, what a way to finish the year.

Matt Corker, Head Coach