IAN Smith paid tribute to his front row after they compensated for Moseley’s shortage of bulk and maintained their perfect start to the British & Irish Cup.
With fitness concerns about all of their four locks ahead of this weekend’s local derby with Bees, the Billesley Common outfit opted to risk playing without any recognised second rows.
That meant loose forwards Neil Mason and Mike Ellery had to play out of position in the engine room and left Smith’s side having to rely on a makeshift set-piece.
And while their lineout struggled – and brought just four pieces of possession all afternoon – the Mose scrum was rock-solid despite facing a much bigger pack.
Smith felt the platform supplied by props Nathan Williams and Shaun Knight and hooker Adam Caves, was key and enabled his men to secure their third straight Pool C victory.
“We didn’t want to get embroiled in a front-five game in our own half because we didn’t have one,” the head coach admitted.
“The scrum was remarkable, credit to the boys in the front row – and the lineout wasn’t too bad, considering what it could have been.
“It was always going to be difficult the fact we did not have any second rows at all.
“We could have probably risked a couple but I didn’t think it was feasible. They will all train on Tuesday and be nice and fresh for Saturday.”
Smith will be able to call on the services of David Lyons and Paul Spivey against Bees and will be able to play a more structured game because of it.
Against Neath, though, they tried to live off their opponents’ mistakes – a plentiful resource – and attack with a high degree of continuity. When they did that, they made inroads through the Welsh defence but all too often they spluttered in the opposition 22.
And there was a feeling at Billesley Common that they kicked away too much ball – a sentiment the head coach does not share.
“It was not the fact we kicked, it was that we kicked poorly,” he said.
“A kicking game can have a dramatic effect but unfortunately it had a dramatic effect the wrong way because we didn’t execute it properly.
“We are satisfied but we made it quite easy at times with our kicking game which was a tad naive.”
That said, Moseley still out-scored their guests three tries to two. The first came in fortuitous circumstances when they trailed 13-3.
Joe Munro charged down James Thomas’s clearance and dived on the loose ball for his first try for his new club.
Early in the second half, Andy Borgen sliced through the Neath defence and set up the position from which Mason barged over.
And on the hour, Anthony Carter finished off a tapped penalty from livewire scrum-half Ryan De La Harpe.
MOSELEY: Carter (Bressington 67); Bishay, Armitage, Munro (Reay 40), Thomas O; Borgen (Styles 59), Taylor (De La Harpe 40); Williams (Voisey 55), Caves, Knight, Ellery, Mason, Maltman, Pons, Pennycook. Replacements not used: Warner, Protherough.
NEATH: King; James K, Thomas S, Bramwell, Jenkins; Thomas J (McCarthy 50), James T (Morgans 71); Downs, Littlehales (Price 50), Davies (Lott 71), Evans (Collins 67), Sidoli, Gravell, Uzoigwe (Whitney 65), Evans (Powell 62).
