| Match Report: |
The Mighty 29 V Ashfield 2nd IV 19
Oh the first Saturday of the season..... rugby, how we missed you! No more weekends 'doing the garden' or 'helping' with the shopping until next April. The Mighty, pitted against the Ashfield Swans was always going to be fun. The Mighty arrived in good spirits, adorned the cherished jersey once more bursting with pride, some old faces, some new ones and strode out onto a pitch the size you used to play on at U15's. Concerned they may not be able to brandish the free flowing brand of rugby they are synonymous for, they ambled into the warm up. The traditional game of touch to loosen up was briefly interrupted by Nev, who admirably had done the honours to clear a pile of dogsh*t from the pitch, decided to chase the entire pack round the pitch with the offending carrier bag. Hilality over the game began.
Kick off received, Moderns set a platform and a couple of rucks later a stray hand pulling the ball back gave a penalty away in Ashfield's favour just inside our half (about 5 metres from our line). A couple of good drives from the opposition resulted in another penalty. Fearing the Swans were about to unleash theiri expansive backline, they promptly tapped it to their biggest bloke form 3 yards who powered over. 20 minutes of stalemate then commenced with Moderns trying to score off every bit of ball they had and trying to force passes you wouldn't see in the Tri-nations and Ashfield refusing to consider anyone stood outside 12. Finally some quick ball for the Mighty resulted in some quick hands and Jim Feasey handing off one and cruising over from 20 yards - converted via drop kick by Callum Convery (we didn't have a tee). The rest of the half was pretty much mirrored what had gone before, some dogged defence by Moderns and some direct rugby by Ashfield. They scored another direct try with two pairs of hands touching the ball throughout 4 or 5 phases and Moderns preceeded to try and spread the ball wide which everytime we did, we looked like we could score. Particularly when we got into the hands of Max on the wing making his Moderns debut, who twice received the ball in the 5m channel, stopped, stood up his winger and preceeded to beat him on the outside. The only problem being that he was so quick, none of the rest of us could keep up! We turned round behind!
The half time talk was simple and everyone agreed, we needed to not be drawn into their game, play some phases and do what we do best.
We started in the way we meant to, defended well, put phases together and started to look like we knew what we were doing. First score of the 2nd half went to The Mighty. A scrum conceded just inside our own half. Ashfield moved the ball past 12!!!! The outside centre looked to loop a pass round his man and in between him and the winger was Fitton. Fitton tucked the ball under the arm, looked up in anguish realising he was on halfway and set off, ably supported by Peasey he set off for the line chased by a massive back rower. He made it including an absolutely gay swan dive and Convery again converted. Moderns were starting to get into a stride. Moderns got the next score too, Jason Evans (another debutant at 9) linked in well as the hands moved more freely and bounced off a tackle to go over although we did have to shout to him to put the ball down before he ran off the pitch, such was the vastness! Another Ashfield try from a good set move meant the scores were level with 10 minutes left. More pressure from Moderns brought a penalty on the 22 in front of the sticks. Only one option and Convery kept his cool to oblige.
The last tens minutes had Ashfield pushing hard to force Moderns back until at a breakdown, our hooker (who had an immeanse 10 mins).... and I genuinely have racked my brains to think of the name! did a pick an go to run through the first line of defence, see the fullback, think of stepping, realising he couldn't and smashed it up. Quick recycled ball, two phases to the right and Moderns 'rewinded'. Tom Hooper at 12 had a gap to go through, wrong footed the defence and Feasey was in support for his second. Converted and that was it.
Overall it was a rusty display but credit for changing our approach at halftime and making the game the way we wanted to play it. Good times ahead I'm sure!
Man of the Match: A lot of players in contention particularly for defence but I'm going for Jason Evans - try scorer and debutant who made the most of some difficult ball.
Dick of the day: Tom Hooper - who when the ref congratulated us before the game on being unbeaten (knowing it was the first game of the season) decided to say 'Isn't this our first game though' in front of everyone - dick! |
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