This was the match where only victory was good enough and the boys did the business and I see no reason why they shouldn't keep up the winning habit.
OLD YARDS 22 V HANDSWORTH 10
(MIDLANDS DIV 3 WEST/NORTH
Playing ay home against
Handsworth, currently third from bottom in Midlands 3 West (North), and both
sides desperate for points, this was a match that Old Yardleians were determined
not to lose, and this attitude was reflected from kick off by solid forward
pressure and ferocious tackling by the threequarters, with D Rimmer being
particularly destructive. However Handsworth were not about to cave in that
easily, and despite OY's achieving the better territorial advantage, and coming
close to a try following a break by scrum half L.Purdey but the ball was held up
on the line and so the visitors survived
.Midway through the first half,
with lineouts and general forward play working well, and attacks through the
threequarters showing good variation with captain and No 8 S Grainger joining
the line to add physical presence in the centre, it seemed that a score was
inevitable, but erratic finishing and dogged opposition defence kept the home
side out until the 30th minute, when quick ball from a set scrum on
the Handsworth 22 was snapped up on the inside by winger A Pearce to score a
well deserved unconverted try.
Handsworth came straight back,
with their No 8 being particularly effective picking up and driving from the set
scrum to gain good ground in the OY's half. On 38min, OY's were penalised on
halfway, and gifted Handsworth a further 10 meters for dissent to turn
a difficult kick at goal into a certainty, to bring the score to 5 -3. This fired up the OY's who were soon back in
the Handsworth half. Good breaks by Purdey and Grainger were held up under the
posts, but just before half time the visitors were penalised for killing the
ball, J Walton converting the penalty to bring the score to 8 – 3 to the Ys.
Following the restart, further
OY's pressure through the forwards, with both wing forwards, M Hope and M
Banyard impressive in support ensured that the match was being played in the
Handsworth half, but again, the side failed to convert the pressure into points.
Handsworth began to get back into the game as the home side faltered, and after
25 minutes of what was now an even contest, the visitors took advantage of slack
marking to go ahead with a well taken converted try to put themselves in front ,
10 – 8
Although behind, OY's never
really looked like losing and the Handsworth score served to jolt the side out
of complacency, to the extent that four minutes later, aggressive defence in the
centre by the impressive Rimmer forced an error which was capitalised on by
Grainger as ever in support to commit the defence and release Hendricks who,
with players still to beat, backed himself to outpace the opposition which he
did to score a fine unconverted try to regain the lead.
This time OY's maintained their
grip on the match, and further pressure in the Handsworth half resulted in three
further penalties in quick succession, two of which were well converted by A
Walker to round off a creditable all round performance, giving the OY's a
deserved 22 -10 victory
Next
Match 19th December 2009: Moseley Oak :(Away)
Other
senior results saw O.Y. development xv lose to Wyvern by 0-29 but the vandals defeated Bournville by 46-7
.
So 15 weeks into our
campaign (only 18 scheduled fixtures to go before I hang my boots up) last
Saturday saw us entertain the boys from Bournville in a lively but ultimately
one-sided encounter at Fortress Tilehouse.
After an enforced
week's holiday for some with the late cry off of Halesonians
the side showed several changes to the fifteen that so convincingly despatched
Ed's two weeks ago with the return of Dai Baldwin at hooker (having dropped
himself from the Development side, and promoting Rick in his place assumingly by
gunpoint or by threatening to show the photos). The Barrel returning to the
centre (the Villa playing away obviously), Roger slotting back in at No.8 having
had a short spell with the ones, Lee Coates coming in at scrum half (Callum
having been abandoned at the roadside).
Mark now having
given away our hooker meant Officer Burrows moving to tighthead and along with
Shannon, dare I say our heaviest front row of the season was unleashed. In the
second row the Lonester partnered the Colt Arkell (more bulk) and with Nick
Levey having recovered from his breast augmentation work at Claverdon, joined
Captain Slow and Roger the Dodger in the back row (possibly our heaviest pack
full stop).
In the Attendants,
Ian Neville continued in his role at fly half, with Fitzy & the Barrel
forming the midfield, "Forrest" McDonald on the wing & Mike Neary returning
to his more accustomed role as last man standing.
With the local
society continuing to struggle to produce a referee for third team games we were
lucky that Tom Power was on hand to fill the breach (albeit reluctantly and in
borrowed boots) Thanks Tom.
My production of a
current set of scoring stats earlier on in the week also meant a small element
of try scoring rivalry between Coatesy (7) & Roger (6).
Having completed our
warm up (cheers Shannon) which does appear to have benefits as we started, as we
carried on full on and up front, with our heavyweight eight putting their
counterparts under all manner of pressure in the set pieces, and it was from
this pressure that the chocolate boys infringed and Slow decided to take the
points with Nev bisecting the posts for a 3-0 lead . Now watching the game is
one thing and playing in it is another from a point of historic accuracy
especially in high scoring games, so bear with me as I have no idea in what
order the tries were scored.
But the scoring went
like this in the first half 3-0, 8-0, 13-0, 20-0 & 27-0. Tries by Roger (2),
Coatesy & Shannon with Nev converting the final two
tries.
Half time 27-0 and
the venerable Steve Painter on and Arks off for a fag break!
Now I'm going to
paraphrase Roger's hat trick in his own words and in any case they weren't
pretty "three dedicated to the front five, total yardage 2, pick up fall over,
pick up fall over, pick up fall over, brushed mud off"
Lee's brace were
ignite afterburners, take off and score!
Couple of first half
highlights for me were wannabe Attendant Shannon's outrageous dummy to Mike
(who'd run all that way in support too) to go between the centre and winger and
to dink it down one-handed, followed up by the Bournville second row's (think
Martin normally props) full tilt charge right up the middle bursting tackle
after tackle only to be felled in his boots again by Shannon, and think the
quiet man gets this week's man of the match for these two and his sheer work
rate in the scrums and tight.
Early on in the
second half we allowed them a score after theirr Springbok second row set up one of their whippets on the wing to run half
the length of the pitch to score under the posts. 27-7 But two more tries one each for Rog &
Coatesy, both converted by Nev 41-7 put the game beyond
doubt.
Second half
highlight for me was Barrel's great run up the middle and if you have time on
your hands look on Solihull's web site click on their Tetley's Twickenham
appearance and you will see a great picture of a slightly younger Nick doing the
same thing at HQ, locks flowing and all!!
Slow suffering from
Man Flu comes off Arks comes back for the last on to score a wingers try in the
corner, rupturing his Achilles tendon, tearing his hamstring, and snapping both
cruciates in the process or that was his excuse for not putting it under the
sticks, conversion missed. Slow back on for the last five.
Final
score Lazenby 3 Coatesy 2 (please note the latter insisted he was playing
through the pain barrier having stepped on a nail the previous
day)
The final
score 46-7
Harborne 2nds away this week
chaps.
Both the under 14s and the under 16s were narrowly defeated. The 16s beaten 5-13 by Alcester and the 14s 10-20 by Edwardians. If you saw last week's reports I mentioned a new player in the 14s by the name of Tre'rail and my advice to give him the ball asap. Well guess what, the first pass he received, he went on an outside break, sprinted along the touch line from half way and scored in the corner. What a pity that the passes dried up. Welcome to the club to another player from the Academy perhaps one day you will be a first team try scorer just like former Academy product, Andrew Pearce.