By Aaron Wilson
Knowledge is power, and the SaberCats intend to apply that adage after absorbing their first loss of the season.
The 5-1 SaberCats return on the road Saturday afternoon against Old Glory DC looking to get back on a winning track.
The SaberCats won their first five matches of the season and were the lone remaining undefeated squad in Major League Rugby until last weekend.
Taking on a 2-2-2 DC squad following their 47-35 defeat at home to the defending champion New England Free Jacks, the SaberCats got back to work this week with a determination to improve and learn from what happened as they fell behind last weekend and ultimately they came up short in a comeback attempt.
“We had some positives throughout,” Dominic Akina said. “We’re going to take that into the next match, scratch the mistakes and go into the next one and play the way we can play. DC is a strong team. We can’t take any team for granted. We’ve just got to come prepared and stick to our basics and how we played at the beginning of the year.”
What do the SaberCats need to do better?
“Discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline,” wing Jeremy Misailegalu said.
The SaberCats fell behind 40-18 in the second half before mounting a rally with 17 unanswered points.
Defensive breakdowns and missed conversion kicks led to the setback.
“Lesson learned,” SaberCats lock-back row Johan Momsen said. “The biggest fixes will be on defense. We can’t give up that many points. We’ve got to keep working.“Definitely, our defense has to be better. You give up 47 points, and it doesn’t matter how much you do on attack, it’s always a big job to catch up. We’ve got a lot to work on. We were a little rusty after the bye week, but there’s no excuses. A lot to work on, on defense. We can’t be complacent.”
Leading scorer and Man of the Match Davy Coetzer is looking for improvement to happen immediately.
That starts with an analytical, honest approach to the last game and taking those lessons into the next one.
