“A tough game vs the Gnomes, excellently coached by Arkaini.

He did give my dwarves many headaches, using his trees expertly on offence in the first half. I was not able to make a dent, and he orchestrated many blocks and pushed many players into the trees. I was pulled out of position, and his fox shredded the offensive line.

The 2nd half, the dwarves were able to fight back. We still lost the block war, but won the bash with a record 5 casualties. It was too little, too late.

I was impressed with my opponent coach, who identified the stunty-wrestle combo ability, however was unlucky not to get the correct 1DB dice for sacking. After an excellent first half from the trees, they then misbehaved with skulls and roots in 2nd.

Learnings:

1) Receive first versus the gnomes, in the attempt to dictate pace of play and early removals. My mistake was to kick first, hoping to force early score. With Dwarves it is not easy, and also 'Time Out' kickoff.

2) Pressure into the stunty gnomes more, using strength advantage correctly. Tricky with guard and trees, but some more of this pressure would have been better in first half.

3) Keep one 'linebacker' central on defence versus teams with ability to 2++ through line. I was pulled too far to the side and could not reach the fox carrier. ”