‘We were wasteful’ - Holloway
OAs swarm on a Richmond player. Picture: Neil Baldwin - Credit: Archant
Old Albanian’s boss Andy Holloway cited wastefulness as his side’s downfall after their 17-8 defeat away at Richmond on Saturday.
Trailing 10-8 at half-time and with the wind at their backs in the second period, Holloway felt it was an opportunity missed for his side.
“In the second half, the way the game had started to pan out, we should have put them away but we were pretty wasteful,” Holloway told the Herts Ad.
“It was probably attention to the smaller things, the small details that you need to get right once you’ve gained territory and made breaks and made ground on teams, it’s the little bits of detail you need to get right in order to get over the line and get your side points [that we just lacked].
“I think the mental application for that small bit of detail right at the end of each play was the difference between scoring three or four tries and winning comfortably having not played all that that well and losing by a frustrating score where you don’t even get a losing bonus point.”
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Despite the game being played in an awkward cross-field wind, Holloway refused to blame the conditions for the defeat.
“It was the same for both sides and we probably actually played our better rugby into the wind, if we could have played both halves into the wind then we might have been happier with that.
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“We enjoy having the lion’s share of possession and when kicking isn’t an option it makes the team work harder and get certain bits of your game right because you don’t have the kick as your get out of trouble card,” said the former Bedford Blues player.
OAs squandered the chance to move up one place to seventh in the SSE National League One table with the defeat, something Holloway says they can seldom afford to do.
“It was another missed opportunity Saturday – if we’d picked up a win we would have drawn level on points with Wharfedale – so we can’t really afford to let too many of these slip otherwise we’re going to end up where we are rather than taking the opportunity to climb up a place or two by the end of the season which has got to be our target.”
The team are next in action at home to Henley Hawks on Saturday March 1, with kick-off at 3pm.
