Occies 14 - 34 Old Whitgifts

Mayfair Occasionals 14 - Old Whitgiftians 34

Saturday saw us take on the OWs, who are currently lying 3rd place in our league. They're a good team, and have given us a fair hiding the last few times we've been at theirs (that said, our persistent habit of turning up to theirs with 14 and then losing players to injury from there hasn't exactly helped). We knew it would be tough, particularly as were missing a few of our bigger players, and our starting pack barely contained anyone bothering the 6 foot mark. Still, it was a bright clear day at Barn Elms, the geese were flying high, and we had lots of support - thanks to everyone who got their parents/girlfriends down, and condolences to the rest of you unloved b _ _ tards.

We had a good build up to the game, and we tore into them from the start. The two teams were well matched, and neither was in the mood to concede any ground in defence. In the first half the only scoring opportunities were penalty kicks from each team, all of which sailed wide. To my mind we edged the 1st half and we just couldn't quite provide the cutting edge to get over their tryline. Accordingly I thought that we might turn the screw in the 2nd half, but in fact it was the OWs who turned up the heat. Their subs seemed to make a difference, and suddenly they started to get over the gainline and behind our defence. Two quick tries having being conceded, it looked like it might be a tough old 40 mins, but in fact the Occies redoubled their efforts at that point and mauled their way up the pitch, with Santa managing to score two trademark opportunistic tries. Huw converted the 2nd from the touchline, showing admirable mental resilience considering his awful shank of a penalty attempt in the first half, and it seemed like something memorable might be on the cards....but ultimately the youth and pace of OWs told, and they scored a few at the end to run out comfortable victors (according to the scorecard). Still, it was an open game played in good spirit by both teams, which hasn't always been the case in previous fixtures with them.

Good

- Strong attitude throughout from the Occie's. We started very strongly, which hasn't always been the case with us, and it was only in the last 1/4 when the speedsters and power runners of the oppo managed to evade tackles. Given the somewhat scratch nature of the centres and the front/second rows, this was impressive. Thanks as always to everyone who played out of position - particularly CJ and Pagey in the front row, and Ducky giving hooker a go after Nick got himself an injury.

- Somewhat bizarrely in a game in which I was the tallest member of the back row (and possibly the heaviest of the back five of the scrum, once Calvert's quiff is taken out of the equation), we monstered OWs in the maul and in the line out. What we lacked in height and weight, we made up for in technique and leg drive. The Colonel going up at 2 was dominating proceedings (with Chris White supporting at 4), and with hindsight maybe we could have looked to have played to these strengths and used the pack a little more.

- Santa poachedtook his two tries very well from the pack's legs at scrumhalf. Good to see a 9 claiming all the glory for himself in this scenario, as is traditional, rather than waste time patting every forward on the back in the modern style. Points also to him for maintaining the inverse relationship between (i) yardage gained for tries scored (absolute minimum) and (ii) the cale of his celebrations (maximum war face) - known to seasoned observers of the Occies as 'the Sharpe Correlation'.

- Gwil's improvement of his timekeeping - only 1hr 20 late this time. And this after he arranged for his mates to arrive 2hours late the previous game.

- Always good to have some new players come down, so welcome to JT (Gwil's mate) and Martin (Santa's BiL, and adding some much needed stature to his family). Both of them showed well in the centre against a powerful oppo combo, and hopefully will get the chance to show us what they can do in space before too long. The Santa / Huw / Suki axis (of what, I don't know) came close to putting them through gaps a few times, but were ultimately stifled by the OWs persistent offsides defensive linespeed.

Bad

- We lost quite a few scrums against the head, which was one of the reasons why we didn't get the points on the board that our dominance at that stage warranted. To be fair, this was due more to the other side's hooker (who had an impressive ability to hook with both feet, all the while distracting our hookers and the ref with his constant monotone moaning) rather than us getting pushed off the ball. In the second half the scrums were much improved, and by the end we just about had the edge.

- Multi-phase rugby and the Occies are uneasy acquaintances at the best of times, and this game showed up our limitations on this front. In attack we were perhaps guilty of going wide too often, rather than offering the forwards as runners off Huw or off Santa, and giving the backline time to regroup. Against a decent team, we can't expect to just batter through the centres on first phase. In defence, we were often in complete disarray once they had gone through a phase or two, and as always we need to work on communication and sheer bloody-mindedness to work on regrouping and cutting out the doglegs and mismatches in defence. Our fitness let us down a notch by the end.

- Whereas OW could bring on their latest batch of school-leavers to freshen their legs in the 2nd half, our own power-sub was 'Old Man River' Russ Lamb, 'fresh' from a 90 min squash game that morning. Sadly Russ forgot where where he was and what he was doing and wandered distractedly into a ruck, whereupon he got the 'shocker' finger on his right hand trapped and snapped. The resulting tendon damage must be highly frustrating, given that he had just come out of the recent cold patch without slipping and breaking a hip even once. Fingers crossed for a prompt recovery for the man.

Silly

- Pagey, fresh from his falconry masterclass the other day at S&C, filed new copy to the 'why forwards shouldn't kick' file. Will Davies was also a notable contributor, so perhaps it was a Newcastle thing instead.

- Possibly just because I took an early knock to the head, but there seemed to be a few lookalikes out on the pitch. Their 6 looked like a high-BMI version of Gillard (and was about as graceful as him on the run), their 10 looked like a crude caricature of the weak-heeled Barnes cameo-merchant Andy Day, and the ref would not have looked out of place in the Santa-Olla family reunion (well, he was short and had a touch of the Rick Moranis about him).

- Suki, having given (once again) the 'angry version' of his team talk, early on in the game tracked a stray kick over the touchline, keeping his eyes on it throughout in textbook fashion....and then got absolutely sacked by the collection of oppo bags and water bottles. Like something out of the baseball scene in Naked Gun, and a privilege to behold. We may never see the like again.

MoM

Santa had an excellent game. When he wasn't profiting from other peoples' work at the tryline, he did a great job getting the ball away from the breakdown (and against a strong oppo player, too). It's a rare game when scoring two tries and bringing down 1 new player and 3 supporters doesn't make you MoM, but on this occasion we couldn't overlook Col. His work at the line outs and restarts was exemplary, and throughout the 80 mins he carried well, cleaned up when necessary and made his tackles in his usual unfussy way. Credit also for showing that having to play 'in the row' isn't an automatic excuse for not contributing elsewhere on the pitch, which is a lesson for some to reflect on.

We're at the business end of the season now, so let's make an effort to carry on getting the numbers out on the pitch and in the bar after. This Sat should be a cracker, for one thing.