"What was by far the biggest event in this year’s rugby calendar actually had nothing to do with goings-on on the pitch anyway..."
[illustration: Adam Poole]
Let’s be honest, the sooner this season is boxed up and filed away in the deepest, darkest corner of the club’s history the better, which puts us in a bit of an odd situation with this ‘ere season review.
It’s not that it’s been outright bad, there have been the odd moments of quality that it would be nice to sit back and reminisce over. Although both games ultimately resulted in defeats, the performances in the two single-point losses to Munster in the British and Irish Cup back in October and Bristol in the league in February, for example, showed a quality, determination and ability to compete with some big sides on our day.
The strength of the pack this season has also been incredibly impressive, and in stark contrast to the virtual disengagement of the backs. On their day the forward line has shown more or less week in, week out that they can stand toe to toe with anyone else in the league and even beyond, and with contracts already renewed for some of the key men for another year, there are reasons to be cheerful.
Dan Montagu
Player of the Season Dan Montagu, who has also been excellent this season in his second spell with the club, has also signed a new contract, committing himself to at least another year with the Green and Whites. Player’s Player of the Year and club captain Brent Wilson barely put a foot wrong all year, while Matt Jarvis’s penalty kicking has been largely excellent even if he has sometimes struggled when kicking from hands. But then replacing someone of James Arlidge’s quality was never going to be easy.
Off the pitch the long running saga of the club’s takeover was finally and thankfully resolved this season, too. After fending off a winding-up petition from HMRC in the High Court at the start of the season, the club’s new ‘Friends of Nottingham’ ownership group have stabilised the club. Financial investment is still very much needed, but the club’s future appears secure, for the short term at least.
But in truth the positives have been few and far between, outnumbered by the stinking head-in-your hands moments of despair that have become far too common this year. Home and away defeats to the season’s predicted whipping boys Ealing Trailfinders were bitterly hard to take. This season’s win return – just five in total from 23 league games – is also devastatingly poor for a team that had so much hope going into the season.
While the forward line has indeed been impressive, that has meant a massive over-reliance on the front end of the squad, with the backs little more than spectators by the last few weeks of the season. While there’s nothing wrong with playing to your strengths, relying on the pack to play with the intensity of 15 men for 80 minutes every week is going to take its toll, and the amount of late points we have conceded this year as the front row has visibly wilted through sheer exertion is worrying.
Yet, to a certain extent, all of this is irrelevant. We stayed up, and will have Championship rugby again next year. We’ll move on, and should be a far better side for this experience.
Montagu on the charge
What was by far the biggest event in this year’s rugby calendar actually had nothing to do with goings-on on the pitch anyway, but rather concerned the departure of one of Nottingham Rugby’s all-time greats. David Jackson is a name that should elicit a thousand fond memories in the hearts of Nottingham Rugby fans everywhere. The one-club legend of a man, who could so easily have left to play Premiership rugby but chose instead to stay with his home town club, finally called it a day this season.
Tragically, it was injury that forced the decision, as Jackson struggled to recover from the effects of the latest in a long line of concussions that left him with bleeding on the brain, saw him suffer a seizure, and still causes dizziness and blurred vision on occasion. When Jackson made the decision to step away from the game, the entirety of that month’s Left Lineout column was devoted to him. Go seek that out, that’s the real end of season review, because whatever happens at Meadow Lane next season, it’s going to be an emptier place with Jacko around.
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