There are not many teams who have denied us a try, not even our perennial bogie team in all black; come to think of it I can't actually think of one. So it was an unusual feeling to return try-less from Shrewsbury.

Credit to the Shrewsbury defence for holding us out in the first half and then turning the tables in the second. But it was as much down to an inept and impotent display from Walsall who conspired to be the architects of their own downfall. The slick running and handling game went south for the winter as passes fell short, got fumbled or sailed serenely into nowhere. Yes there were a couple of players missing and several positional swaps throughout the game as injuries took hold but no-one was playing totally out of place. It just never clicked apart from the odd cameo.

We set ourselves high standards in our rugby and for some reason fell woefully short on Sunday gone. Good teams are measured by how they bounce back not how they fall. The Plate game against Derby on Sunday will be the real measure of this team.