fevnut's musings
Leigh
last Sunday
When we
arrived home last Sunday we felt almost as joyful as we did on the evening of
April 14th 2012. And just in case you have forgotten, that was the day we
knocked Castleford out of the Challenge Cup!
That win
against Leigh was special, very special. In the last few years Leigh have been
a bogey team for Fev and there was that unbearable period from 2014 to 2017 when
we lost 11 successive games against them.
During that
period there were many examples of somewhat unsavoury tactics used by Leigh but
the real problem was the way our players reacted that meant we fell into the
trap over and over again.
Honestly,
we weren’t really expecting to beat them this time. There were several factors
that made us apprehensive.
To go into
such a game without Cameron King who has been our most consistent performer in
2019 was a real worry. It was great to have Jack Bussey back but could he
really do the job in the #9 role? Well, the answer to that was a clear yes! He
has rapidly turned into the most useful member of our squad. Not necessarily
the best (but not far off) but certainly the most useful. To have a player who
can perform brilliantly at prop, stand off and hooker is a real luxury. And let’s
not forget that he is also a very good loose forward or second rower as well.
As if that’s not enough, during 2014 he took 11 kicks at goal and scored with 9
of them.
We were
also worried about how well Leigh have been playing in the last few weeks. They
came into the match on a run of six successive wins.
Beating
Leigh was extra special because they were coached by our ex-coach and had
Martyn Ridyard and Gareth Hock playing. Didn’t our lads do brilliantly coping
with Hock!
The final
issue that made last Sunday so very special was that we managed to win despite
an awful performance by the referee. We don’t go along with the idea that he
was biased but he simply had a shocker. With a host of decisions against us
which were unbelievable.
We were
asked who we thought was our man of the match. Our answer is that there were 17
of them. But if we did have to pick just one it would have been Brad Day.
Another outstanding performance from him, in a team of outstanding performers.
Note to club.
Can we have some shirts next year that don’t allow opposition teams to rip them
off our players back, please?!
Toronto
on Saturday
No one will
ever take away from Fev that we were the first team ever to beat Toronto in
Canada. We were there and it was a fantastic trip but sadly we can’t afford to go
two years running.
We hope
that the Fev fans who have gone have a great time and cheer our lads on to a
second win over there. But it won’t be easy!
Our record against
them is one win and two losses but we did pretty well in all three games. It
prompted us to have a look at how our record compares to the other 2019
Championship clubs. It wasn’t easy because they have only ever played Bradford
Bulls once whereas they have had six games against Barrow and Toulouse. In the
end we settled on measuring success by calculating the average of points
difference between Toronto and each opposition team. We were delighted but not
surprised at what we found.
Yes, we
have the best record against Toronto. In fact we are the only club to have
scored more points against them than they have scored.
But we
should also remember the background to that match over there last July. It was
the last round of the Championship. Toronto had already cemented their top
place whereas Fev were desperate for the win to give us a chance of getting
into the ‘Qualifiers’.
We only had
sixteen players and had to give a début to Dakota Whylie. But they rested quite
a few and played some out of position. This is clearly shown by comparing the
team they put out against us to the one that took to the field for the Million
Pound Game.
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