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CHRISTMAS:
Rugby is still busy for us over the Christmas period
but I think we are planning to have an afternoon
in the house on Christmas Eve as a family and on
Christmas Day we alternate between our parents’
houses so this year I am at my in-laws, so I’m sure
we will be well fed and well looked after.
Eleanor, my little girl isn’t totally aware of Santa yet
but she will be loving the Christmas tree and all
the lights. We had a wee boy last Monday called
Luke, not after Luke Marshall, we just liked the
name. But I think if Luke here wasn’t as good a
person, we might not have gone
for it! It has been an exciting few
weeks, mostly full of anticipation
and then relief when he arrived
safe and sound. He has been
really good so far, sleeping a lot,
I won’t be advising him to play
rugby just yet, if he wants to grow
up to be a Premiership footballer
or professional golfer it would be a
better retirement plan for me!
A DISAPPOINTING FEW GAMES:
Obviously Saracens are a top class
side and we were disappointed
with how that game went. It didn’t
feel like we contributed enough to
the game as we would have liked
to. They have a fantastic kicking game and are
good at putting you under pressure and we didn’t
deal with it the way we would have liked to.
Against Leinster at times we looked very
comfortable with ball in hand and we looked
comfortable in defence, but again we just didn’t
quite have that added spark to finish them off
and make use of the opportunities that we were
given during the game. In big games like that
one, you maybe only get three or four chances
unlike other games were you could have five or
six. So you have to take every chance you get and
in the past couple of weeks we haven’t, so that’s
disappointing.
FRESH LEGS:
The boys try immensely hard and sometimes its
easier coming off the bench and creating a bit of
pace in the game or bringing something different
because you have nothing to lose in some cases.
If the game is already going a certain way, you can
come on to change things up and sometimes it
helps the team and sometimes it doesn’t. I think
when you come off the bench with nothing to lose,
it can look like you are injecting a bit of energy into
the side but the guys out there have been doing
the hard graft for 50-60 minutes. So from our point
of view, you want to try to add as much as you
can to the team and I feel when I do get on I add
something and try to contribute positively to the
team effort. It’s our aim coming off the bench to be
encouraging and add fresh impetus as best you
can.
THE NUMBER 9 JERSEY:
Ruan and myself get on well,
both on and off the pitch. He is
a good player and I would like to
think that I also add a bit to the
team so from that point of view we
are different players. His kicking
game is phenomenal and I have
different attributes to him. I don’t
try to play like him, I play the way
I enjoy playing. We are different
but if he’s doing well for the team,
then I’m happy and if I’m doing
well at something else then that’s
good for the team and it gives the
coaches options.
MAKING AMENDS V EDINBURGH:
I think the crowd have been quiet the last couple of
weeks if I’m honest, but I think that comes down to
our performance. They buy into it when we play well
and because we haven’t been firing on all cylinders,
I think they have found it hard to get engaged. But
that is very much up to us as to how we play, how
we get the crowd on our side by our performance
and hopefully this weekend we can start well to get
the fans into the game and hopefully they will have
something to enjoy as well as ourselves. There is a
massive expectation on us now, because we have
been putting in performances over the last few
years so people expect us to win every game so
losing at all it seen as unacceptable. People tend to
jump off the bandwagon when we are not doing so
well and jump back on when we are doing well so
we have got to make sure we are doing well more
consistently.
PAUL MARSHALL
ON...
PAUL MARSHALL