Blackbird not heard as Bears’ flair is discounted on Black Friday

After reaching relative rugby heights in the last two seasons, it feels like this time round we are still struggling to get out of the foothills. We know in which direction we want to go but don’t quite have the advanced map reading skills required to get us there. As a result, the defeat against Northampton Saints on black Friday was as frustrating as it was disappointing, but one that was representative of our season so far.

When post-match Pat singles out the defence as one of the only positives in a game where you have shipped a try bonus point to the visitors and succumbed to a thirteen-point defeat after having been at parity just after half time, then you do start to wonder whether ‘another bad day at the office’ is really an acceptable enough excuse.

I mean, a bad day at the office is somewhat vague and in a real workplace can encapsulate a whole sliding scale of incompetencies from simply staring at a to-do list all day but actually doing nothing, to causing multiple paper jams in the photocopier whilst attempting to create an A5 stapled booklet, to worst of all, turning up at the wrong location completely. No, ‘a bad day at the office’ needs a little bit more qualification.

On Friday, at least the Bears turned up but given that three of the major items on the agenda for the evening’s work was to have a solid set piece, to be competitive at the break down and to score more points than the opposition, then you have say that from a fan’s point of view it was one of the worst types of bad office days – the one where there is lots of purpose at the start but ultimately ends in minimal end product.

At least you know where you stand with total incompetence and can learn to live with it. Ask Bath. But living with ‘flattering to deceive’ is another level and is one of the biggest fan killers out there. I almost wish that the Bears hadn’t got back to 20-20 with such a delicious try after the break because it made the subsequent disintegration of the scrum and associated dreams of winning all the more painful. The front row appeared to literally lose their heads in the second half, as scrum after scrum popped up, and when Gorge Kloska was subbed in after a final penalty count warning he must have glanced over his shoulder to check whether a reserved signed had been placed on the sin bin chair given the inevitability of what was likely to happen. It was credit to him that he wasn’t carded for at least ten minutes and to be fair by then the damage had been done.

It is very apparent, if it wasn’t so already, that the minimum requirement for providing the sort of platform that our backs need is a blended combination of flair and filth in the pack. Going coast to coast from broken play is one thing but to achieve sustainable try scoring success is another and to do that you have to be on the front foot more often than not. And in that sense, your game plan, whether it is to run, to kick, or to stick it up your jumper always comes back to the same thing – solid set piece, competition at the breakdown and just enough filth to keep the opposition on their toes.

That is exactly what Saints had and what we didn’t and despite a commendable defensive effort from Bristol, particularly in the first half, this platform afforded Alex Mitchell the freedom to snipe round the edges, to marshal his troops at will and to deliver quick ball to his strike runners who gobbled it up with glee. That Andy Uren recorded precisely zero metres in the game says it all and whilst most of the time he was more hapless than hopeless, the frequency by which he was forced backwards by a retreating scrum or a messy counter ruck, meant that he was no doubt relieved that Opta don’t publish minus numbers. Even his delicious 50:22 in the first half was an outlier in a generally underwhelming highlights package that also unfortunately contained a kick straight into a touch and an intercepted pass that both led to scores from the opposition.

Whilst it wasn’t Andy Uren’s fault that we lost the game by any stretch of the imagination, you do feel that his visit to Pat’s office on Monday morning may not have been the most comfortable one of his career and only tempered but the fact that he would have been behind the whole front row and the scrum coach in the queue.

For every Grand Design you need solid foundations of concrete dug deep into the turf. For every cherry on top of a cake you need a firm sponge base to hold it and for every rugby team that wants to score multiple tries you need a forward pack that yields to no one. If not then you run the risk of collapse and when you are a system addict like Pat Lam, you’ll only get a Five Star performance if every element is firing on all cylinders. In this sense the regular absence of seasoned merchants of filth such as Afoa, Byrne, Sinckler, Luatua, Morahan and Radrada is selling the Bears short at the moment and it doesn’t appear that we have the strength in depth to buy wins on a consistent basis.

But let’s finish on a positive note. Toby Fricker seems to be getting quicker and slicker with every game that he plays and has deservedly, and to be honest, surprisingly, cemented his place in the team with a series of high energy performances that does at least get the blood pumping, and although Henry Purdy was more pedestrian than piston it was great to see him back on the park. Charles Piutau made one trademark break from broken play in the second half which nailed most of his metres stats but otherwise cut a somewhat forlorn figure as he was starved of opportunity to shine and despite the clear deficiencies up front, Joe Joyce and Fitz Harding tried to sprinkle as much star dust as they could on a unit that lacked the grunt to go the distance.

However, with a tough assignment at Gloucester on Friday, we cannot afford to be bullied up front again. The return of Kyle Sinckler and John Afoa will be one solution but I do wonder whether we will also see a starting berth for Dan Thomas and even an appearacce out of the wilderness from Nathan Hughes as we strive to regain an upward trajectory.