Tight loss to league leaders

By Adam Calvert:
First off well done to everyone who turned up at 1130 for the 1330 kick off in the 3 degree heat! There were suggestions for some sort of punishment at Friday nights shindig due to the poor admin by the man who was probably 3 pints deep on date day with a Kiwi at our time of kick off. However the hour and half warm up did give us the opportunity to practice our line outs with a pack that consisted of 5 backrows, 1 second row, 1 hooker and Burt, the prop which the oppo had kindly provided us with. We believe Burt had spent the morning hot boxing himself into a coma into the car park as his face wore no expression whatsoever. The practice did get to the stage where we were chucking Hugues up at 4 but that stop promptly after he managed to put both knees into OJ's face.

We all knew that we were going to be up against a side that had won some decent games this season and with time lingering on whilst we waited for the ref to clothe himself and monkey to stitch together 2 shirts to fit our newly appointed prop the pressure was building. Never the less, after 3 prematch talks we came out the blocks well and got under their skin with the usually ruddy faced ginger 'Welsh' man taking the ball to the chops in a full Lewis Moody esque charge down. The ref was allowing us to get our hands on the ball at the break down which kept the many backrow players happy and we were able to turn the ball over countless times.

At half time we were 10 nil down through 2 opportunistic tries.

As the second half got under way our pressure was still unrelenting in defence, with so many backrow players on the pitch and backs who also wanted to play in the forwards turnovers and tackles were consistent. Offensively we kept smashing it up the middle with Benny, Suki and debutant Pete all having some great carries attributed with some supportive rucking we managed to keep the ball. However gaps appeared as we became almost frantic trying to be everywhere which opened some holes in our defence, I still can't believe the ref missed the 1 handed knock on which led to their third try.

We then managed to get a scrum in their 22 and our first try came with a tidy move down the blindside which involved simple NZ style hands drawing their defence and sent Santa over to score in the corner off an inside ball.

If truth be told (and this is hard) we missed the usual lanky legs Gillard up there in the line out, it was actually remarkable that the oppo didn't realise we only had half a jumper until 3/4 of the way through the game. They helped us out a lot in the first half by throwing the lineout ball straight to their fly half even though the ref had explicitly said at the start of the game that he wanted a fair battle and the ball had to be caught (catching the ball in the line out, joker!) with the inside hand. Their forth try came as I attempted to slap it back and their players surged through the gaps to pick up the bouncing ball which they then finished off well.

Scrums were neither here nor there really, Burt with the gravitational pull of a super model in Camp Bastion was difficult to move but with the rest of us all weighing in at around 11 stone a piece and Pagey valiantly stepping up to tight head did make us a little flighty shall I say.

Our second try came when we'd been giving the opposition some pressure for sometime drawing their players in. The ball came across the field from the left to where we had a small pod of forwards out wide on the right, the ruck was quick and gave me an easy opportunity to pick and scramble over the try line.

Not a clue how their 5th try came I was blowing!

As the last 20 minutes came in so did the pick n go or the newly named 'hammer/Gus ball,' this drew in their defence but it also drew in our attack as everyone wanted a go. We kept our heads up and kept making the tackles, in the end it was typical of Occies style of rugby, we certainly won the battle, we kept dogging hard but our clinical play was lacking as we ball chased when the real opportunities were out wide.This may have been due to hardly anyone playing in their usual position and I think everyone agrees the game was still very enjoyable!

End result Occies 10 - OE 27

Some after match highlights
Pagey's hair clashing face which reddened further when Wales lost in the last minute against Australia.
Gus chucking his shot of Sambuca into his pint in front of his wife and then winning the downing comp. An Irish car bomb is a welcome addition to the après match rituals.
Millfield scoring both tries for the Occies and having 3 men on the pitch during the greatest ever victory at Twickers.
Showers were a good temp and whoever provided the Strawberry Source, strong!

Ps Benny P what are you doing for the next 2 months?