Moderns travelled the short distance to Loughborough on a day with less than perfect conditions due to the gale force wind blowing straight down the pitch.
Winning the toss Moderns decided to use the elements and use the conditions to put the home side under pressure.
With Gaunt back in the side at fullback his huge boot (wind assisted) forced the home side deep into their 22 and with Holmes stealing an early lineout the visitors were soon on the front foot when centre Gubb crossed in the corner following a series of rucks and sharp hands. A tricky conversion was missed.
Territorially Moderns bossed the game but with the ball in the air or off the pitch the tactics ween't great as Loughborough were more than happy to play keep ball and make the Moderns defence work hard and commit penalties. One of these penalties reduced the defecit and the home side were soon infront when an outrageous dummy from the fly half saw the home sides backs race unchallenged to score under the posts making the conversion easy.
At 10-5 up Loughborough were soon on the front foot again. A huge knock on missed by the ref saw the Loughborough number 8 launch a counter attack but with the visitors defence waiting for the whistle the casualness in the visitors defence allowed their prop to make good yards before offloading to the winger who raced in to make it 15-5.
The problems started to mount for Moderns when flanker Holmes was yellow carded for not rolling away (when the Loughborough 9 already had the ball in his hands!!!!!). However, to their credit the visitors refused to lay down and were soon forcing their game plan onto the home side which saw winger Woodward rewarded when impressive quick hands saw him cross in the corner. Typically though Loughborough cancelled this out almost immediately when once again poor tackling allowed the home side for a converted try.
Half time saw the score at 22-10 with Moderns now facing the tricky breeze.
The early signs were that this was going to be a long second half for the visitors as Loughborough raced into a 37-10 with a combination of good tactical play and poor defending from the Moderns players. With Pascoe becoming the second Moderns forward to be binned the set piece came under pressure but this seemed to serve as the catalyst for Moderns to spark into life producing arguably the best 20 minutes of rugby seen this season. Attack after attack saw the Loughborough defence challenged resulting in home players now falling foul of the ref and two further tries from the impressive Woodward and sub Hirsch saw Moderns rewarded with a try bonus point.
Loughborough were always in control of the game and have become a force in this league but once again the Moderns players must be asking themselves what if?! With a better tactical appreciation of the conditions, more control around the base of the ruck and scrum and tighter defence this could have been a different story. All 4 tries were impressive in their creation and execution and once again we proved that when we get the pattern right we will stretch any defence. |