Match 7: North Wales (Away - Challenge Cup)
fevnut's musings
The Ecstacy and the Agony
The Agony and the Ecstacy was a
famous film of the 1960s about the artist Michelangelo. Well, the last two
weeks, watching Fev has been like that but in reverse order.
Last time we wrote about the complete
thrill of watching Fev beat Leigh after nine losses on the trot against them.
It was thrilling and we were ecstatic about it.
Following that on, we arrived at the
ground last Sunday in keen anticipation of watching our great team add another
win against Swinton playing good attacking rugby and we hoped with a tighter
defence. It seemed to start okay and Briscoe’s try in the sixth minute meant
that he had now scored in seven successive competitive matches. That’s all six
this year and the last match of last season against Halifax. A friend turned
round and said ‘I think he’s now better than his brother’. We agree and just
hope super league clubs don’t come in for him. The rest of the first half took
us to an 18-4 lead but didn’t feel too good. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t up to
the standard we know they can play.
The second half was AWFUL! We felt
really down leaving the ground and heard others expressing exactly the same
thoughts. We can’t remember ever feeling quite so low after winning a match! It
was simply agony.
Of course, it became apparent that
Swinton had come to spoil. Well, what else would you expect for a team yet to
win a match against one that had won four out of five. Nothing in the least bit
surprising there. That wasn’t the problem. But there were two huge problems.
First of all that we got drawn in and started behaving like the opposition.
Completely the wrong reaction. Instead of getting involved in skirmishes we
should have torn them apart with our superior skills. Even with their attitude
we should never have given away 15 penalties. We should never have had a player
sin-binned and Misi should never have got himself sent-off. It’s obvious why it
happened. One of the worst displays of refereeing ever. It wasn’t a matter of a
referee biased against Fev. It was sheer incompetence in controlling a match in
which one side were desperately trying to prevent Fev from playing.
It does beg the question also of the
competence of the referees department at the RL. Surely they must have reviewed
the video and seen how he lost control. But instead of taking action he has
been ‘rewarded’ with possibly the biggest match of the Challenge Cup 4th round
- Batley v Leigh.
But back to our players. If we are to
become a top team (and they have definitely shown the potential) then they have
to expect others to employ such spoiling tactics. Hopefully next time it
happens we will have a referee capable of dealing with it, but they have to
learn that the way they responded is not the answer. We said it after Richard
Moore was sent off against Sheffield and we way it again. Players should be
fined by the club for getting sin-binned and fined heavily for getting sent
off. We would also consider fines for the giving away of needless penalties.
Let’s hope that Duffy has had them in
and read the riot act. Of course we need to be tough. We need to dominate
matches. But that is simply not the way to do it. It is worrying in the extreme
when we demonstrate to the rest of the Championship that ‘spoiling tactics work
against Featherstone’. Had we been playing a better team we could well have
lost the match.
90 years on
Rugby league people love to celebrate
anniversaries. Well here’s one to celebrate for Fev that many will be unaware
of. In 1927/28 Fev were in only their seventh season as a professional club. Magnificently
they finished 3rd in the Northern Rugby League table with only Swinton (who did
the ‘4 Cups’ that year) and Leeds above them. And then, after being both home
and away be Leeds in the league they went to Headingley in the Championship
semi-final and came away with a magnificent 15-12 win. Sadly they weren’t able
to match that in the final against Swinton goi8ng down 11-0. But it was a
magnificent year for Fev and our second best league campaign ever, only being
topped by the 1976-77 team.
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