Mayfair Occasionals 63 - 21 Sutton and Epson

Apologies, but due to a horrendous workload this week’s match report is a
bit shorter than normal (and probably littered with errors)…. But I’m not too worried as hopefully the score speaks for itself somewhat.

Due to an accident delaying the travelling Sutton and Epson side, the game got off to a late start. This gave the Occies an uncharacteristically long time to warm up. Not limited to the usual 10 minutes of touch and a few line-out run throughs, we opted for a full warm up, a team stretch AND practice drills. 25 minutes later we were still at it, honing our skills and preparing our bodies for the clash ahead…. 2 minutes later we began to worry about how much would be left in the tank for the game! Keen not to allow the protracted warm up to lead to classic early match complacency, up stepped Suki to fill the last five minutes, this week opting for his ‘not-quite-full-angry-but-angry-none-the-less speech’ (a personal favourite of mine…. Full-angry scares me a bit).

Straight away it seemed Suki’s words had resonated as Jamie Snook opened
the Occies account scoring his first of 3 tries (a second hat-trick in two games!) We soon followed with a second try.

Enter the dreaded complacency… Some soft defending at the fringes and
missed tackles in the backs lead to a prompt response from the oppo. They
were a lumpy oppo that enjoyed a pick and go from the bottom of the ruck.
But what really got their ‘creative’ juices going was the rolling maul…
something that we struggled to defend against. Communication in deciding
when to join a maul to stop it rolling and when to leave to defend the
fringes let us down here. But in fairness to the oppo, they were heavy and drilled in this aspect of the game. It was their go to move, which they relied on…. Fortunately for us we had more in our armoury than that.

With our third try, our spirits were lifted once again with a touch of
class from our man of the match Huw. Spotting the perpetually open Tom
Clarke on the wing, Huw opted for the daring decision; perfectly executing a move known in my school days as “the Flange Burger”. A beautiful cross-field kick from fly-half into the arms of Tom to run in a try. At this point everyone took a moment to check we were still on the goose-sh!t covered field at Barn Elms and not under the floodlights of Twickenham (or Millennium stadium …. to keep the Welsh happy) Huw had a great game, both with the boot out of hand and in front of the sticks, but also with a strong running game. In fact he was so threatening that the open side flanker took it upon himself to wage a personal vendetta against him with two late tackles and a flailing arm to the head (all missed by the Ref).

The remainder of the first half saw us trade tries with the oppo with Tom
getting another, along with Suki and Snook.

And so came the second half.
Where last week we were awash with flankers, this week the backs were out
in force. The start of the second half saw 5 changes to the back line. On
came, the ever dependable Dave Lee, returning Occie Kanadian Kris and
debutants Jean Billiard (JB), and Johnny Cole and Gareth ‘GG’ Gold.

Over the second half we managed to hold a clean sheet. A fantastic
demonstration of defence and stamina (against a team who were blowing… even though they train regularly).

JB’s first impact on the game came early in the second half when he put in a tackle so late that everyone missed it… he soon made up for it with a great score in the corner after a rapid chase of Kris’s kick!

On the other wing, also eager for a try in his opening game Gareth Gold was a coiled spring ready to make his presence known given half a chance. GG had been applying good pressure on the oppo chasing down our kicks forcing errors in their 22. But his moment to get on the board appeared to arrive as Huw slung a beautifully long pass to a wide open G. Gareth was home and dry… until the ref confirmed what everyone on the field (other than Huw) already knew; the pass was forward…. WAY forward.... Shame the ref was watching you this time eh Huw?!

The forwards played well, doing better against rolling mauls, running great second phases and poaching multiple oppo line outs. We also saw Sundo force himself across the line from a quick tap penalty.

All in all a great game and a result…. A few areas still to work on, but
we’ll iron those out.

MOM: Huw Davies

Good
Great debuts
Great squad size
Huw and Tom Clarke’ champagne try
Another hat-trick from Jamie Snooks
Both Ed Taylor and Fran stepping in to hook when Sundo hurt himself.
Pagey’s masterful stretching session…. More of those to come!
Great game for Navy Dave Lee in the centres.

Bad
Rolling maul defence.
Sundo’s raging hangover
Said hangover resulting in him perching on the wing.

Funny
The referee asking if Sharpie was playing and then checking his pockets to
see if he remembered to pack his yellow card … there’s history there.
(Sharpie – it was the Irish guy)
No sure if this was funny or not; Tom Sunderland treading on Pagey’s hand
causing uncontrollable spasms.
Kris's war cries from full back!