Tamworth again, defeats for 1sts and devs. more glory for Vandals.
First Team Match Report
Opposition: Tamworth (Away) Result
Tamworth 20 – OY’s 3
With a side showing five changes from that selected, and
missing the attacking dynamism of captain Steve Grainger sidelined through
injury, OY’s were due for a stern test away from home against a young, fit and
well organised Tamworth side currently lying second in Midlands Three West
(North).
OY’s took some time to get into the game, and were soon on
the back foot under pressure from the home side in both scrum and lineout,
however it was not until twenty minutes into the first half that, following
quick scrummage ball and an overlap in the centre, Tamworth crossed wide out
for an unconverted try . Two minutes later, a similar move, assisted by some
nonexistent tackling enabled the home side to produce a second unconverted try,
and it was feared that the game would be over as a contest by half time.
However the OY’s came back, and, on the back of an improved
defensive performance, began to gain territory. Following a series of drives, a
penalty was awarded to the visitors wide out to be well converted by standoff
J. Walton to complete the first half with a scoreline in favour of the home
side of 10- 3
Following the restart, Tamworth built up pressure on the
visitors, to the extent that it was not until after thirty minutes had elapsed
that the OY’s got anywhere near the Tamworth 22. With the scrum and lineout
under pressure, possession was slow and unpredictable, and the OY’s resorted to
a kicking game in an attempt to force the home side into errors. This only had
the effect of encouraging more attacking by the opposition, and it is to the great
credit of the OY’s by now solid defence that no further tries or kickable
penalties were conceded during this time.
Towards the end of the match, OY’s dropped their guard and
the defensive midfield decided to get themselves involved in a minor scuffle
that had broken out under the OY’s posts. Unfortunately the ball was still
alive and in the possession of the Tamworth threequarters, who took advantage
of the wide open spaces to score a try under the posts, duly converted.
It was left to the ref to Yellow card a couple of the
protagonists and end a hard fought match that was generally played in the right
spirit, with the 20 -3 victory deservedly going to the well organised Tamworth
side
Next Match 30 January 2010 – Telford (Home)
The Development team had a tough match against Tamworth 2nds and with Yards suffering from several late withdrawals a defeat by 29-7 was not unexpected. Our only try came from Dave Simpson who is showing much of the potential that was evident before his transportation to Australia. A special mention must be made concerning Brian Collingwood. As the club has set the upper age limit at a desirable 23 years in the Development team it can be understood why Brian played like 3 men. Work it out lads and well done Brian who is eligible for the Steve Sidwell free pint for January.
Vandals save us from whitewash.
Well our fourteenth competitive
game of the season took us over to Wiggington Park Tamworth, after an enforced
Winter lay-off of six weeks, losing the fixtures for Harborne, Wolverhampton,
Kidderminster (pity that) and most recently Birmingham Wyvern.
Our arrival on site was slightly
hindered by the man on the A51 who tried & failed to secure his forklift
down with a couple of bungee cords in one of the more unusual RTA’s you’ll
see.
Still taking the field with a
combined age of 662 years with the Colt Arkell starting at eight and Captain
Slow dropping to the bench and a welcome return to action after 18 months and
cosmetic surgery of the combative Richard “Jacko” Jacks starting on the flank.
So the side this week was again led by Captain Lonie (he does a great job you
know...).
With Tamworth winning the toss they opted to kick off. The
first twenty minutes developed in to a war of attrition with ring rust playing a
major part; for despite spending most of it in their half we failed to breach
their resolute defence, ably marshalled by their scrum half & sixty year old
fly half! (I make that another 14 years for you then Nev)
Gradually our heavyweight eight
with our Home Nations front row of Shannon, Dai & William (no Sweaties
obviously, you don't get 'em in the Lions either!) began to get on top, and with
Big Phil finding his feet with his hands in the lineout we started to secure
increasing amounts of good possession.
And finally the ball went up the
jumper and our eight went on one of their customary drives starting twenty
metres out bulldozing their way to the line, then just as they got to the line
the ball went back one pair of hands too many and into those of our winger
Coatesy!!! who gratefully accepted the big boys late Christmas present. 5-0 up steps Ralph and converts a nice easy one for
a 7-0 lead.
Not long after, well secured ball
from a lineout saw it go through the hands of the “attendants” missing out
Ralphy I think at outside centre (former North Mids Colts centre I’ll have you
know) to Coatesy who simply gassed his younger opposite number on the outside to
score a more conventional second, giving him a nice hand off to remember him by
too. Ralph steps up to slot another easy conversion. Their winger plays no
further part going off shortly after.
Half Time 14-3
Shortly after the interval Roger
the Dodger returns from bolstering the first team scrum and goes in at No.8 with
the Colt Arkell galloping over to the first team to slot in on their flank, not
sure if we gained or lost any poundage in the exchange mind with both unlikely
ever to trouble a Weightwatchers subscription.
The first twenty of the second
half followed a similar pattern to that of the first half with neither side
gaining an upper hand until a neat passage of play by the attendants saw a miss
pass from Fitzy going to Coatesy inside our own half who once again lit up the
afterburners to ghost round his man and score mid way out for a 19-3 lead. The conversion by Ralph
narrowly going wide.
Penalty to Tamworth twenty odd metres out, and they opt to take the
points 19-6, and they’re sniffing an unlikely come back as we begin to slightly
loose shape.....and breath!
Still breath enough though for
Shannon to show that great increasingly trademark dummy of his again, and
another great flowing set of hands by the attendants to release Cedric down the
wing from just inside their half, think we need to set him off a little closer
next time chaps.
Tamworth then put a great passage of three quarter play
together themselves outflanking our cover defence to score close to the posts 19-11. Now controversy as both Slow
& the linesman (who incidentally was the ref originally appointed for the
game, who’d also arrived late only to find that he’d been usurped by Referee
Dave) both put our flags up (ok mine was a Lucozade Sport bottle) to indicate a
successful conversion 19-13.
One score in it then (or so a lot
of us thought, me included) and game really on for the last fifteen, when
actually the ref had adjudged the kick hadn’t bisected the uprights. Would have
been nice to have known this and I wouldn’t have gone through another couple of
nails.
Cedric’s hamstrings, shoulder
(and morale) sore so Slow on for the last ten or so minutes, first duty a rather
painful poorly executed tackle on their centre at full tilt which bloody
hurt and still does! Second duty a summons from the referee to calm things down
as he thought things were becoming a touch fractious, though their skipper and I
didn’t see it that way.
The “missed” conversion could
have proved even more important especially when after another flowing move saw
Tamworth go in at the corner only to have it disallowed too, as the referee had
adjudged the General’s fine cover tackle had put the Tamworth player into the
corner flag before he’d grounded the ball cue much disquiet in the Tamworth ranks!! And so a 19-18 game with a touchline
conversion to probably win it remained at 19-11.
The final scrum saw temptation
prove too much for Jacko wanting once more to be hung between two big men, and
with Mark “Merv the Swerve” Baldwin switching to No.8 we completely disrupted
their put in with a great drive.
Lots of final Tamworth pressure
was finally thwarted with the ball coming loose and out to Jacko Wilkinson
showing what a great fly half he is with a lateral run and a hefty clearance to
touch, game over.
Final score 19-11 Final age
672. Our tenth win of
the season and no doubt the ref being removed from Tamworth’s Christmas list.
The last twenty minutes was a
great display of backs to the wall belligerence in defence
with Tamworth throwing the kitchen sink at us
with a number of great tackles coming in from Nick, Fitzy & the General
.
Finally, a few stats for those
who collect them, top try scorer is Coatsey now out on his own with 12. Top
points scorer and “most capped” player with 71 and 12 appearances respectively
is Ralphy. Now here’s one that amazed me, despite a fairly stable hard core of
old bastards we’ve still managed to give a staggering 55 players a run-out in
the 14 games we’ve played. Can’t beat a good squad system I say. In those 14
games we have now scored 61 tries, not bad for a bunch mostly on the wrong side
of forty.
This week’s Man of the Match is
our hat trick scoring wannabe flanker Coatsey.
Next week at the moment is a home
game against Edwardians.
Hopefully too I’ll have our Polo
Shirts and that’ll be twenty notes on delivery please, I also take personal
cheques or Euros but please don’t ask for credit...there’s a recession on you
know!.
Mini/Juniors
Sunday morning at the Portway was the destination for the under 14s who, managed by Pricey and vocally advised by Chicken, Dave Adams, Rick, Kim and Arkell, took on the might of Birmingham Solihull. We are getting seriously better in each game. The skill and determination are clear to see but a touch of naivity or inexperience at the vital moment makes the difference between winning and losing. Big Dan Cushing, another Aquinas Academy player, made a big impact on debut at Number8 and the two Jacks (Price and Molloy) are consistently excellent. Our try was scored by Jordan but how we failed to score more often is still a concern.