14 Men went to play, went to play at Mansfield, 14 men 13 men 12 men 11 men 10 men 9 men 8 men 7 men 6 men 5 men 4 men 3 men 2 men 1 man and his two kids who were looked after by Fitton… Went to play at Mansfield!
This famous song used to be about mowing meadows or something, nobody really cares any more since now it will be passed from generation to generation to tell the tale of how 14 Davids went to face the 15 Goliaths of Mansfield (by way of reference – their inside centre was a bigger unit than our biggest forward. He was not the exception), and not only acquitted themselves well, but rather demolished them as if they had laser guided, SCUD missile projecting slingshots. In this age of depression, recession and cutbacks, wingers across the world begin to shuffle uncomfortably as the 2nd XV show that it is not necessary to play 2 on the same pitch…
Despite knowing that we has secured second spot in the League, this was still a match everyone wanted to win, and from the start, after a typically short ‘warm up’ you could tell that was the case from the effort every single player put in. Sucking up the early pressure from the huge Mansfield pack meant that they had to go to plan b, and as their fly half attempted to throw the ball to his outside centre, he instead found Peasey waiting in his backline to pick the pass off and scamper in for the first score from inside his own 22. Knowing that we had no kicking tee, and that it was under the posts, we sent for our best man. He wasn’t there. So instead Bevis strolled up, buoyed by his match winning kick at Lincoln a few weeks back. He hit the corner flag. Learning their lessons quickly, Mansfield quickly abandoned any thoughts of using plan B again. Ever.
It became quickly obvious that although the bigger Mansfield pack were well drilled, if enough defensive effort was put in up front they could be nullified and our backline would get the scores as son as we turned over ball. This was one of those weeks when the 2nd XV did exactly what was needed, allowing Peasey to finish off a first half hattrick in and around further scores from the Impressive Sam on his Moderns debut and Feasey. However Mansfield kept themselves in touch, scoring an interception try and battering two more over the line, although it has to be said that neither of those scores were given up easily, Moderns defence forcing at least 10 phases in the red zone each time. This was exacerbated by the referees’ interesting definition of how to legally compete for a ball in a tackle situation. Seeing as they had a goal kicker on board, the half time score was a little flattering 27-21.
Moderns open game and their Tenacious Wall of Defensive Awesomeness™ however meant that the Mansfield pack had very little in the tank for the second half, and Moderns began to run away with the match by opening it up with scores for Ed Lisley and a fourth for man of the match Peasey coming fairly quickly. Fitton came on after a horrific injury to Bevis (he banged his knee really hard on the ground - diddums) and quickly got in on the act, crossing in the corner. The scoring was then finished by a massively well deserved forwards try, McIntyre surging into the 22 and getting a good offload away to Alcorn in close support, who them repeated the process to put Jim McNiven in under the sticks.
A huge win that sets us up nicely for the finale to our league campaign away to Kesteven next weekend.
Man of the match – Peasey. 4 tries and a massive contribution in defence all day, putting some huge hits in even with his gay ribs!
Dick of the Day – the Lord Bevis – for his outrageous conversion ‘attempt’ followed by his even more outrageous ‘hurty knee’ injury! |