TO say Sedgley Park Director of Rugby Tim Fourie was ‘not a happy teddy’ after seeing his side lose down at Launceston last Saturday when they should have won comfortably, is an understatement.

To prove the point he launched into his charges this week in an effort to get several messages home to them, predominantly the need for a consistent mental attitude.

“We got off the bus half asleep and before we knew it it was half-time and we were 21-15 down,” he said: “There were strong words during the break and we went out for the second half wound up and you could see the difference, but ultimately that first-half no-show cost us the game and it was definitely a case of three points thrown away rather than two points gained, in fact we gave them five points they should never have had.

“It’s not that we can’t play, it’s down to certain players not being mentally prepared. It doesn’t matter whether you are full-time or part-time, you have to have pride in your play, that includes your physical and mental preparation, but there are one or two who are lacking in that department.

“As a team we are not good enough to play for just 40 minutes and get away with it. Guys can’t pick when they want to play, they have to play all the time. There’s an element of arrogance in one or two and I don’t know where it has come from.

“Launceston play a high-risk game, they throw the ball around, keep it alive, give it plenty of air which is lovely to see, but we should have really punished them and we didn’t.”

This Saturday Newbury visit Park Lane and will no doubt be eager to avenge the two defeats suffered at the Tigers’ hands last season.

“They play a similar style of game to Launceston, so we will have to come out from the first whistle and literally throw the kitchen sink at them. We can’t put ourselves under pressure by gifting them an early lead,” said Fourie.

“We beat them twice last season but they play for 80 minutes and are more than capable of running in late tries, which they did last week and last season against us, particularly up here, so we will have to be mentally alive the whole game. 

“We are more than capable of beating them, but I thought we were more than capable of beating Launceston and look what happened.

“Too many players made too many bad decisions because they thought they were better than they are. That will stop. We have to play with discipline and determination.”

However it wasn’t all doom and gloom against the Cornish All Blacks. Having set the forwards the task of winning 90 per-cent possession in the lineouts and 100 per-cent in the scrums, the targets were more than met, but the Tigers will come up against much better packs throughout the course of the season.

As for this Saturday Phil Jones may well start his first game at fly-half instead of Steve Nutt and Chris Hall looks set to replace Jan Van DeVenter on the wing, with the two former Waterloo players dropping to the bench as Fourie and his Tigers go hunting for their second win of the season.