MACCLESFIELD’S Giles Heagerty was disappointed for a number of reasons after his side’s defeat at Blaydon on Saturday, and felt his team were hard done by on a number of occasions.

The head coach had praise for the way Blaydon stuck to their strengths, and kept the ball up top with their very strong set-piece which tested his Blues all afternoon.

“You have to give credit to Blaydon,” he conceded after Saturday’s 39-0 defeat in the north east . “They’re very well drilled and have a big, strong pack, which we knew they would be.

“The driving maul was good and at scrum time, they were very good. They have out-thought us, not out-muscled us, I felt our pack actually matched them on many occasions.

“When your set-piece is on the back foot it makes things very tough and we struggled to keep hold of the ball.

“The way we want to play revolves around building phases and that is something that we didn’t manage to do.”

 

Heagerty (above) was confused by some of the refereeing at times and questioned the consistency of the refereeing his side has witnessed week on week, with interpretations of the law seemingly different on a weekly basis.

“There were some very hard refereeing decisions to understand, and it’s hard for me to talk to a referee after a game because their general response is the only reason we’re reacting the way we are is because we have lost the game,” he added.

“It appears that referees are looking at the table and are deciding the outcome of the game because it looks as if they have decided that we cannot possibly be doing things correctly because of the position that we are currently in.

“We have had different interpretations on the law of the driving maul, against Blaydon it caused us problems – how can we set up a lineout defence when the supposed laws change every week?

“Coaches need to be told these changes. We try to prepare on a week-by-week basis and we don’t get any help on these situations.”

Heagerty was happy to welcome back prop Billy Robinson (below) to his side last weekend after a spell on the sideline through injury.

As the search for a second win continues, he’s challenged his team to improve this week during practice and to only concentrate on their own game.

“Billy came on and scrummaged well and put himself about,” continued the coach. “He looks like he has done everything we asked of him while he’s had this injury and got himself back to decent fitness.

“We as a playing group are the only ones that are able to move us out of the situation we are in. We have to concentrate on not allowing anyone to distract us from our jobs and processes.

“Our tackle completion must improve, but I think we have to keep our eye on what we are doing and not worry about what anyone else is doing, we have to be more focused and get ourselves right.”

The Blues host Wharfedale at Priory Park this Saturday.