Beatable Heavies……..

Well what a week that was; horse meat galloping all over the news, meteor showers with devastating impact, first Papal resignation in 600 years and the incomprehensible news out of Pretoria; thankfully then the week came to a close with one of the best rugby weekends Harrodians have enjoyed!

I will be honest and say that writing this match report has plagued me for many months and I know every single player who represented Harrodians Vets yesterday will understand why. We don’t often loose, so the right words have had to be thought through carefully.

Though perhaps best to set the scene as I so often do……

Last weeks friendly against London Welsh gave us the opportunity to make sure many of the guys were available, though sadly our most authentic of Welsh players, Jose Fernandez, had to pull out of the side with a reoccurrence of some nasty rash he picked up in Soho! I know he keeps telling everyone it’s a calf sprain, but watching how nimble he was last night on his feet at the bar in Richmond’s Club house during a ‘face slapping’ session with old University chums – he was clearly fit!
On the subject of fitness, we unfortunately lost Alex Davey at a very late hour who has been plagued with injuries this season and I share his frustration.
We also lost Clappy, who after a night at the BAFTA awards ceremony has elevated himself to the higher echelons of ‘thespianisim’ where there is no place for the macho antics of a rugby match!
And lastly, the charismatic Si Curran, who had All Blacks trials, once,…..in his dreams…..was also unavailable having been detained with wedding preparations, particularly in choosing the bridesmaids colour scheme……..Soft…!!!

I on the other hand had been busy searching the web for Atilla the Hun battle quotes and Hannibal (Conqueror not Lecter) tactics so to feed my hungry mind for an edge over the Heavies! With many hours into the night spent on this research, most of which would have been wasted on the boys, I resorted to a few subliminal messages and started sending daily strategic emails with Gladiator quotes to the boys; I think by Friday they had had enough!
A scene for my Friday night was me sat on the living room floor awash with 24 shirts, shorts, socks, rugby balls washed, drink bottles filled, boots all clean and gum shield washed....all a military style operation in full swing.........!!!
14 year old teenage daughter stands there in a onsie, iphone in one hand, the other pointing............and with a snarl......
"You doing all this because of Richmond?"
"Oh yes"...........came the calm reply!!!!
She was not impressed!

Saturday morning finally arrived and was crisp and dry and made for a perfect encounter……..

Preparation couldn’t have been any better and mentally we seemed switched on, but as the first 10-15 minutes were about to show, we still had that lingering Barnes Achilles heal of not really starting at the start.

Heavies conversely came at us hard straight from the kick off and for what seemed ages we just couldn’t get our hands on the ball. They had us rattled and on the back foot, running well in the backs and testing our tackling.

Their most powerful weapon was the lineout and a particularly tall unit who had a real height advantage going up at 2 or 4. We struggled to compete for their ball and much of our ball was well contested by them. Five minutes became ten and Heavies pressure found cracks in our defence with them going over for a try from a driving maul.

Their next try came from another attack with the backs interlinking well only aided by our poor tackling and unfortunately Barnaby was caught off guard, (a bit of sun tan lotion in his eye) as one of the Heavies centres stepped him, leading to a converted try.

Still we had had little ball to contest with……….

At about twenty minutes Heavies had a lineout on our five meter line and with their size and power used their driving maul again to good effect going over for another try.
Under the sticks we talked and did maintain composure as we knew we had to use the ball with speed and get it out to the backs…..

Heavies pack qualified its team name with ease as man for man they fielded a side much bigger than us, though we had parity with most of the scrums accept for a few key ones when Heavies over powered us.

After absorbing much of the Heavies early onslaught, we managed to win some ball at the ruck and moved it quickly out to the backs and eventually finding Cris Pinni to go over for his first try.
Somewhere in the latter part of the first half Heavies went over for another try which I think came from their backs, though we quickly countered with Cris again finding some holes and putting his pace to good use.

At half time and a few changes with two tries apart, there was a mood of optimism and belief that we can still do it, but it would involve significant commitment and discipline.

My memory does not do justice to when the Heavies scored and so it may have been before or after our next try, which was a class piece of two to three phases being put together allowing Dizzy to nimbly run down the far left hand touch line to go over for a try.

We started to get the ‘belief’ up ever more and somehow seeing the Heavies under the sticks, (as they too wondered if the conversion might happen!) made them look like just another opponent and not invincible!
More play ensued and Mike and Harley who clearly knew each others game, worked well at the rucks allowing for some great interlinking play with a pass from Harley to Mike who went over for a well contested try; on debut too!

This game was in reach, the gap had closed and the guys were well up for it; we still needed to do more though……

From our own try line we won a critical ruck and Gus passed to Barney who side stepped a few Heavies and chipped to touch, but with Dizzy chasing down the touch line he made a perfect pick up and off loaded to Monners who passed to Morgs. Morgs caught the ball this time and on his shoulder was, yet again, Cris Pinni who finished of the move and went over for his third try.

The score was 27 – 25 and five minutes to go!!
Heavies chipped back down to our try line and on the back of a few penalties were awarded a scrum five metres out.
Heavies are near impossible to stop from going over and the boys gave more than 100% to keep them out, but this was in vain and Heavies scored a classic No 8 pick up as they went over the try line. The conversion saw the final whistle go at 34 - 25

I don’t ordinarily want to single out any particular player, but I know the squad will forgive me and support me for making these observations.

Fantastic to see Matt Monahan put on a Harrodians shirt again and we really do want to see more of you if you can broker that deal with your better half – huge game! Likewise, Mike, we already know loves to drink with the Vets and yesterday was a great debut and with a try; welcome to Harrodians proper! On walking back to the changing rooms Dizzy recited how his try had laid a ghost to rest and a bloody good one too!
Harley yet again played with outstanding commitment and made a huge contribution in the loose.
But with no surprise the Heavies rightly awarded Cris Pinni as their Man of the Match and the Hat-trick he produced, (again), was testament to his sublime silky running skills which astound the front row!

On reflection there are so many ‘if's’ and ‘but's’…………
Had a few more conversions…….., err sorry, had any conversions gone over that might have made a winning difference! Our Polish 10 clearly had the wrong boots on and I know will be at least kicking himself!
Line-outs could have worked better and scrums after much discussion in the bar could possibly have been approached differently! We had 5 subs to Heavies 15, (a luxury to be admired) and perhaps could have used them differently? Why did Morgs drop a ball which I have never seen him do before? And what if we had played an 80 minute game……….hmm the minder ponders!

But the reality is, unequivocally, the better side won and they did so by building a strong lead early on in the game, nothing more complicated than that.
It’s fitting that both the Heavies and their First XV won on 34 points and I congratulate both sides on emphatic results, I would suspect the same vein of pride and passion is the spine to the Club!

Heavies are to be commended for not only being great sports on the field, but outstanding hosts in the bar afterwards. Many of our side said to me this was one of the best rugby weekends ever despite the score and with the warmth and hospitality afforded to us, it could just be that the mutual respect between our two esteemed Clubs rightly forged a stronger bond. So in my mind Heavies won the first half and we won second half, but the real winner was ‘rugby’ as friends and acquaintances were rekindled and made!

It was also Rob Kenworthy’s 40th and I am sure the boys looked after you last night... Happy returns from us all!!

Heavies, you are warmly welcome to our humble abode when the fixture returns and we will happily extend the very same hospitality in true Barnes/Harrodians style. In the mean time ‘we’ now know how to beat you and look forward to buying you quite a few jugs when we do!

The Squad who all played with outstanding commitment was:

Jerry Gillespie
Finch (Capt)
Jerry Sheds
Duncan
Brucie
Harley
Nicky B
Monners
Splints
Marek
Cris Pinni
Barnaby
Nick Morgans
Jonathan Stadlen
Barney
Marty
Jonny
Mike Tyson
Gundog
Gus
Dizzy

Tries:
Pinni x 3 Dizzy x 1 Mike x 1

Next Game is Farnham AWAY 2nd March

For now……….
Skips
17.02.13