Lansdowne 8 Monkstown 7 , Sydney Parade. 14/02/2009

Cash Cow or Problem Child? Boston Matrix

In this time of financial uncertainty, imagine, if you will, that the Lansdowne 3rd B's were a company, "KillerBeez plc"....
I wonder how the half year statistics would read:
After a solid start to the year, we too appear to be suffering the effects of the credit crunch. Upon reflection the impressive first half gains against Unidare and Monkstown were perhaps a 'dead cat bounce' (ask Sparks) and that the cracks that appeared against the Warriors, our inability to close the deal, were compounded against Marys and Wesley. Narrowly losing to our nearest competitor Barnhall all but wrote of the potential for a half year profit....
A determined effort against Marys away still ended in a loss and perhaps this loss was the one that got away for us.... Has morale improved or dropped since that game? I'm not sure..... What I do know is that we are now a worse team after 3 weeks of snow than we were after 3 months of summer. Think about that.
As a director of "KillerBeez plc" I can see that there is no need for recapitalisation at this time, we have gear, personnel and coaches, and that is all we need. Our recruitment drive prior to this season gave us an embarresment of bodies. What we lack is 'business acumen'.....
In any company, people have their roles. What is important is that people know that different roles demand different disciplines. In rugby (and in business) everyones role must be for the greater good. Rugby is not an individual sport it is a team sport, and it works when people know what their job within the team is.
Consider three people on our team and their roles:
Tommy is a winger. He is the company salesman, his job is to close deals and usually takes the praise for this. He should be at the end of everything good, everyone else in the companys job is to get him sales. His game is target oriented and he measures himself with tries scored.
Nick is a no8. Head of marketing. He is the company strategist, the ideas man. All the attack comes from his department. His job is to start projects that will make it easier for Tommy to sell. His other function is to snuff out the competitors projects with heavy hits and espionage....
Chris 'MoonWalker' Reid is a prop. Complaints department. He cleans up everyone elses shit. As a member of the front five, he is a beast of burden, shifting pianos rather than playing them. He takes all the hits for the company and gets little praise for this... He understands however that the company will not profit without his work.
Now, this seems a little funny, but there is logic in my meanderings: rugby is a game of sacrifice and gain. We must all put our bodies in harms way if we want to prosper, and no player makes the team complete. There are no strikers in rugby, just workers. And everybody must know their role... If you stand out of a ruck, your colleagues have to compensate. If you run across the pitch, your colleagues must fill the gaps you leave behind.
Know, and play your role. The other reason I wrote this is because the display against Monkstown deserves no mention.
Special mention must go to Simon "ee ba gum" Watsham who managed, in just three minutes of rugby to break, chip and dislocate his finger! Now that's just clumsy! Get well soon Simon.

Man of the Match: Paul Harvey

written by Philip McGoldrick

match photos taken by Ed Bruce

Team

1: Chris Reid 2: Jan Falko 3: Gabriel Portier 4: Paul Harvey 5: Andy Fleming 6: Adam Kavanagh 7: Coner Gahan 8: Nick Jones 9: Matt Allen 10: Eoin Gantly 11: Will Sparks 12: Ross Bloomfield 13: Tomas Keys 14: Thomas Malone 15: Keith Herman (c) Subs: Patrick Malone, Millan Alonso, Jeff Iszeham, Micheal O'H, Ronan Gibney and Simon Watsham.