After an enthralling encounter against the Harlequins last time out, we faced them once again in the reversed fixture - an away league clash in Bristol. In the previous meeting between us and the opposition, it produced a hotly-contested match and resulted in a draw. Following the tight home game, this match was speculated to be another finely balanced encounter. Grabbing all the points in the last match was not completely out of our grasp - this game was also winnable.
Like last game, the senior squad were instructed to not be impelled by the Harlequins' physicality and to attempt to fight fire with fire, due to the opposition being naturally superior in terms of strength and vigour. In previous seasons, we have been lured in by teams like Harlequins and their game, which compelled us to try and match their strength. Evidently, this was a battle we constantly lost and subsequently the whole match. As ever, the squad were told to stick to their own strengths and to play their way - pressing high and quick counter-attacking. Several teams had struggled with the work-rate and intensity we had applied to these tactics in recent times - we had to ensure we put it to full use.
As expected, the game was closely-fought from start to finish. The Dragons had prepared for a tough, close encounter. We began brightly and had maintained that endeavour. We made it very difficult for the home side to settle with our relentless pressurizing pressing, winning possession and then attack rapidly before the opponents had a chance to prepare themselves defensively. We had used our counter-attacking prowess effectively enough to see ourselves edge in front of the Bristol side. We avoided playing into the hands of the Harlequins for long parts of the game, sticking to our task and maintaining control of the game with our own strategy. The second quarter saw the dismal of one of our players for misconduct, which was a blow as it was one less option for the team and it may have distracted us from proceedings. We were starting to look like we had a real foothold on the game. However, from that moment on, our grip on the match was starting to loosen. As soon as we would score, the Harlequins would hit back and find routes back into the game, as opposed to us extending our lead. The opposition were playing catch-up for significant proportion of the match until midway into the third quarter where they got themselves back on level terms following a drop in our performance and a lack of composure, potency and clinical finishing with numerous man-up opportunities which came our way all throughout the match. We did regain the lead on several occasions from that moment on until late into the final quarter, but Harlequins persistently fought back to put themselves level. The Dragons tried to snatch all the points with another few chances in the dying moments of the match, but to no avail. Eventually, the match finished as it did in the home match - Harlequins 10-10 Cwm Draig.
Yet again, our inefficiency with extra-player advantages cost us another win as we had to settle for another draw. The statistic for this match revealed that we had 16 opportunities with the extra player, and only saw 4 goals beings scored. Additionally, on three of those particular occasions, we had a two-player advantage - all off which we failed to capitalize on. This gave us a disappointing conversation rate of 25%. On the face of it, a draw is a decent result, however, the senor squad will know and see this was another opportunity missed to grab all the points. It is certainly something that needs to be reemphasised as we quickly approach our next big test in this BWWPL season.