Having endured a week of harsh weather including 80 MPH gusts which put paid to training on Thursday (I’m reliably informed the juniors still trained!), the Mighty strode out against Ashfield to glorious conditions. Now Ashfield have become familiar foes, we play them away on their postage stamp pitch and the games are close. We then play them at home on our wide open space and it’s a different story all together.
The traditional late changes due to 1st team call ups, illness, hangovers and over sleeping meant a couple of debuts for Barney on the wing and George Offer at fly half. Both excelled and you’ll find out why.
Fitton won the toss and elected to play down the slope in the first half to blitz the opposition and blimey it worked. Moderns started like a train and scored regularly through Rollins who would go on to get 5 tries and Alcock joining in too. Barney who had arrived at the club expecting to play for the 3’s but rapidly promoted to the left wing for the Mighty got in on the act scoring a brace. Gaunt who had switched from his more accustomed full back position to the wing had decided to bring his kicking boots this week and no matter where the ball was placed down, he nailed everything, even side footing one over from the touchline (he was still rubbish last week though!). This was not simply a case of running straight through tackles (although it was at times), with Mods showing some excellent hands and once even scoring from the kick off after moving the ball through 10 pairs of hands and not one Ashfield player touching us – skill levels were high As halftime approached, the Mighty were 50 to the good and the game was pretty much over.
The second half began in much the same vein, the Mighty seemingly scoring at will. Mudie crossed over for his first try for the club. Slack readily accepted a gift from their 10 to run through unopposed and then came the try of the game from Moderns. George Offer who was enjoying an armchair ride at fly half took the ball from Slack in open play, seeing a wall of defenders he chipped over on his own 10 metre line, scampered through, took the ball on the 2nd bounce and sprinted clear of the defence to score from halfway. As time began to run its course, Ashfield got a couple of scores of their own. At this point the Mighty were down to 14 after Jared Allen decided it was time for his nose to take on someone’s shoulder and lost. With his hooter as leaky as the Ashfield defence, he retired. Moderns weren’t quite finished and a late and deserved brace for winger Gaunt took the score to 89-12.
Ultimately it was a mis-match but credit to the Ashfield lads who kept going to the end. Honourable mentions go to Barney, Offer and Mudie for their first tries for the club. Overall, it was a cohesive display again showing that we can attack from almost any part of the pitch and defend as a unit.
MOTM – Rollins 4 tries, but mainly for buying a jug afterwards
DOTD – Jared Allen’s nose for picking a fight with a prop’s shoulder |