‘The better sidewon’ - admits Nicholl

CITY of Derry coach Mark Nicholl held his hands up and felt University College Cork deserved their victory, on Saturday.

The Judges Road men suffered their first defeat of the season and certainly was a stark reminder to what life is going to be like in All Ireland League rugby this campaign.

“It was very, very disappointing, I thought the better side on the day won,” admitted Nicholl.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Things we had worked on in training over the past three or four weeks, we didn’t put into practice. Basically anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It was the right result.

“We didn’t keep the ball as well as we can to make the opposition work harder in defence. We didn’t tackle low enough and certainly, we didn’t tackle on our own terms, so it was very disappointing.

“It doesn’t matter who you are playing, you have to tackle low and put them to the ground. We will have to reassess things and maybe look at a few players’ attitudes because it certainly wasn’t what we would require.”

The City of Derry coach is hoping the defeat and performance is just one of those things and he knows his players will be smarting with the loss.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It was an improved second half but we still didn’t keep the ball as well as we could. Defensively it improved in certain areas but to gift away tries like we did is a cardinal sin,” he added.

“We don’t become a bad team because of one result, we got back to the training ground on Tuesday night and we kicked-on from there. It is not all doom and gloom.

“As I said to the boys before the game, we were not going to win the league simply by defeating Cork but, similarly, we are not going to lose it because we have lost one game. There are still 14 to play and I am more than confident we will finish in the top four.”

Related topics: