31^st October: HSBC 2^nd XV - 18; RBSRFC – 15

Tries: S Kennedy (2); Conversion: M Phillips & Penalty: M Phillips 

Another week and unfortunately another defeat, but this was a game that we could/should have won.  As has been the norm this season we had to field a scratch team with only 15 players to choose from, due to two late withdrawals and one no-show, and with a few people playing out of position.   

We started strongly taking the ball to them and an early penalty gave us field position.  Moments later a second penalty was given and a returning M Phillips smashed the ball through the posts from the deck to give us an early 3 point lead.

The whole game was quite messy from both side with a lot of knock-ons and scrappy ball for both sides.  This tended to force us to kick the ball behind them and some lovely box kicks from G Hughes kept their back three under pressure.  A hard chase from M Hodge, covering as a centre, and M Roberts led us to turnover ball in their 22 and after a couple of missed opportunities S Kennedy finally bundled his way over in the right corner for the first try of the game.

We were soon under pressure again and only some last ditch defending prevented them from crossing our line.  Soon after, a little against the run of play, another long kick was chased down and fumbled by their winger and Steve Kennedy was the one to emerge with the ball from the bottom of the pile-up on the line for his second try with M Phillips slotting home the conversion.

HSBC did not put their heads down and were soon on the board with a penalty kick of their own. They continued to apply the pressure and our defence held at first with the ball being held up over the line on two occasions but the third time they got the ball out to the blind side where we were short-numbered and allowed their wing to score just before half-time.

In the second half we felt that we didn’t get the rub of the green as HSBC applied the pressure by making the most of the ref’s idea of offside forcing us into rushed kicks.  Dubious penalties were given to both sides but one of theirs was in range and they kicked it over to be only 4 points down. Annoyingly the ref did not see a blatant knock-on in our 22, as their player tried to intercept a pass (not sure the sunglasses helped…) and we were forced to defend our line once again.  Their pressure eventually told and they scored what would turn out to be the winning try with a conversion to put them 3 points ahead.

We only had one real opportunity to turn the result around and when that wasn’t converted we did well to defend the last 10 mins to keep the bonus point loss.

Overall, especially for a scratch team, I thought our performance was reasonable, but there were a few things that let us down. We scrummed well but were slow to support ruck ball and hence ended up giving away too many penalties for holding on or diving in. Our line-out also didn’t function as it has but most importantly when we did have to tap the ball down, we were always second to react to the ball. Never the less this we were back being competitive after the previous week’s heavy defeat and there is definitely improvement being made as we get used to playing with each other.  Needless to add that the improvement would be swifter if more made the effort to get to training.

Harps!!!

3^rd October – Charlton Park 3^rd XV 52  RBSRFC 17

Tries: A Lowth, P Harper, J Fitzgerald

Conversions: J Fitzgerald

A depressing day all round.  The cracks that had been papered over in previous weeks’ victories finally opened up and we succumbed to our first loss of the season and a fair beating to add.

Not the best start to the day with traffic and lack of transport meaning several of us were delayed in getting to the ground and hence the warm-up was a bit rushed, but the confidence from previous weeks was still in evidence.  However, it was very obvious from the start that we were against a very well drilled pack and we were not going to get the solid set piece ball that had been a great platform for our season so far.

With four members of the previous weeks back line being unavailable due to injuries picked up after three games playing on hard ground, we again were grateful for friends filling in with James Fitzgerald playing at centre, especially when his first kick from a penalty gained us 50yds.  Alwyn Samuel also came on for his debut but unfortunately not in the way we wanted with J O’Sullivan having to go off injured after 10 mins.

Charlton Park made great use of the slope on the pitch to keep us cornered in our own 22 and a well executed rolling maul allowed them to run in for the first score.  Five minutes later we were two tries down when they ran in a tap penalty from 10metres out.

We did have our chances in the first half with the best being when Stephen Kennedy picked up and got to within 3metres of the line. Unfortunately the resulting ruck ball was not clean and the backs couldn’t capitalise on the holes that had appeared in the opposition line.  Instead Charlton ran in another two tries using their greater build and rolling maul to great advantage.

The second half started much better with the rollicking given by Ollie seemingly doing its trick as we suddenly started playing with a bit more urgency and finally with some aggression.  A penalty in the centre of the field was given to Jack Marshall who, while the oppo were backing off, unwilling to tackling him, surprised everyone on the pitch by passing to Martyn Hodge to take into contact instead.  Some quick ruck ball allowed Alex Lowth to run on to a delayed pass and cross the line for our first points of the day.

This was followed by another try soon after when a certain P Harper ripped the ball from a maul.  Despite desperately looking for Mahoney to pass to, he surprised everyone including himself, by having the gas to run it in from over 50m out.  (Well, it was downhill…)

So great had been Charlton’s dominance in the first half that they looked a bit surprised to only have a 10 point lead and RBS looked to get really back into the game with a superb looping backs move to allow Mahoney to run 50 metres.  Unfortunately, as we tried to force the final pass, it was intercepted and CPs ran back the length of the pitch to score and a blind side pick up a few minutes later effectively put the game to rest.

RBS did score again when Patrick Duhig had a strong run and when seemingly about to cross the line, jinxed right into three Charlton players.  Thankfully the resulting ruck ball was shipped out to Fitz to allow him to score on his debut.  Despite putting in the effort to the end, the fight had gone out of our team and we leaked another two tries late on.

The conclusion is that we were beaten soundly and the worst thing is that they probably weren’t that much better than us.  They were simply well-drilled in both set pieces and open play and they had much more aggression.  It was damning evidence that we have not been putting the effort in at training.

Hopefully improvement will be made through the season as the team comes together and we can put this week behind us.

Harps!!!

26^th September – RBSRFC – 36; Dartfordians 3^rd XV – 26

Tries: P Black, M Smith, J Marshall, M Hodge, T Crossingham, M Cavalli

Conversions: M Cavalli (3)

Another hot Saturday, another solid pitch, another scratch team and another win. In summary it was a good win against a strong team, but we made it very difficult for ourselves and almost threw it away with silly mistakes.

Again there were a large number of previously regular players unavailable so we were grateful for Wedders coming out of retirement, to Martin for bringing down Martyn Hodge and Andrew Mabbitt to play in the back row and to Graeme for bringing down Mark Cavalli as scrum half. We were also thankful that Cav’s wife held on from giving birth for another week.  

After a good warm-up, we felt confident going into the match especially when half the opposition players had to run directly from the changing rooms to start the game, but it was soon obvious that this was not going to be an easy three points as Darts started running some good lines followed up by some swift rucking.

However it was RBS who opened the scoring; A fine positional kick from M Cavalli was followed by some good forward spoiling in the line-out and some quick backs hands let P Black score with his now customary sideward flop (a style that will come back to bite him). 

Unfortunately the lead was short lived as Darts started finding holes in the RBS defence and ran in to even up the scores, with a successful conversion to put them ahead 5-7.  We battled back up the field and for once J Marshall put his head down and drove for the line from 10 yards.  The combined efforts of 4 Darts players couldn’t stop him and RBS were back on top.  Hopefully Jack now realises what a potent weapon he can be if he gets the correct body position and protects the ball.

Alas, again the lead was given up, when an opposition penalty was quickly taken and they managed to run through the entire team to score under the posts.  Although, it looked suspiciously like the Darts’ player had not actually kicked the ball for the penalty, there is no hiding that we continue to give away silly penalties and make little or no effort to retreat giving the opposition an easy 20 metres at least.

The silliness continued when first up J Jordan picked up the ball from a ruck and dived over the top to score on the 5m line. The look of incomprehension when the ref didn’t give the try but gave a penalty against him was priceless.   That was followed up by a great move, shipping the ball out to the left wing for Phil to run over the try line and then put his foot in touch in goal as he was trying to put the ball down. Thankfully, through a combination of direct running and good support, we did score through Martin, Tim and Martyn Hodge on his debut to go to half time at 29-14.

The second half was a fairly scrappy affair with our mistakes being punished with two Darts tries to allow them back into the game, but a great high ball from Cav was dropped by the opposition full back under pressure and gathered by Cav himself to run in under the posts (another debutant try scorer) and give us a bit of breathing room. We had managed to cross the line again but Tim’s attempt to put the ball under the posts meant he ran out of the goal area and was tackled. Two missed penalty kicks late on allowed us to run down the clock for a relieved victory.

We made it hard for ourselves and so far this season we have yet to gel as a team and put in a fully rounded strong performance but three wins out of three is not to be mocked. Congratulations to all.

Harps!!!

19th September – Beccehamians 3rds - 0; RBSRFC - 44

Tries: P Black, M Smith (4), R Ballaster, A Ruocco, Penalty try

Conversions: J O’Sullivan, P Harper

Despite a rather frantic pre-match warm-up due to our hooker being at the wrong club and our wingers being stuck in traffic, we managed to produce a good performance to start the season with two wins out of two.

With such a large number of regular players not available, we were heavily indebted to Chris, Graeme and Rob being brought down to play.  The old boys who turned up were also very pleased to see a certain ex-player in the opposition line up and no surprise that this coincided with the resurrection of ‘Lazarus’ Darvill to the sidelines.

A reasonable competitive start eventually saw some great work by the forwards produce quick ruck ball that was swiftly shipped through the backs’ hands to the left wing for a grateful Phil Black to open his scoring for the season.  However, any thoughts Phil had for reclaiming his position as top try scorer this year were about to take a serious dent.

Last year’s winner of that award, Martin Smith, opened his own account for the season with a try in the right corner following some good forward support play after a strong run from Matt Roberts in the centre.  A great conversion kick from the touchline by J O’Sullivan put us 12-0 up at half time.

The game was actually very tight during most of the first half and the first fifteen minutes of the second – not helped by some incompetent kicking from hand by our fly half – but the previous week’s lesson seemed to have been learned as we tackled strongly on shorts and we didn’t let their big runners get up any momentum.

Credit to Beccehamians for keeping to their task but from the moment the backs realised they could pass to each other it became one-way traffic with RBS scoring six times in the second half.  The most significant try was for a certain lawyer named Ballaster.  The last time Rufus crossed the line Mahoney and Martin weren’t even born.  As much as we would love to say that it was a 60 yard mazy run, it wasn’t. It was actually a 5 yard bundle over the line, but they all count and Rufus will happily describe the moment in great detail to anyone who will listen.

A great wing run from Matt’s brother-in-law saw Andy Ruocco rewarded with a try for playing through the pain and an unlucky O’Sullivan was pulled back off the ball just before scoring himself but we were awarded the penalty try. However, much to Phil’s chagrin, the day probably belonged to Smithy who managed to cross the line a further three times. 

A great win all round was based on getting the basics right; good forward support play, strong tackling and some good running from the backs. What was even more encouraging was there is still a lot of room for improvement. (We won’t mention the kicking!)

Here’s hoping for some softer ground soon.

Harps

12^th September – Old Dunstonians 3’s   7    RBS RFC  10

Tries: Tim Crossingham (2)

New season, new captains, new coach but thankfully a continuation of the winning streak which has run has seen RBS unbeaten since Feb.  Unfortunately we can’t claim that this was one of our finest performances, but a win is a win and it’s a great platform to begin the season.

In an almost exact repeat from the opening game of last season against ODs 4^th XV, we turned up on time and had a great warm-up, whereas ODs were desperately trying to put together a full team. And like last year the ref was one of their own filling in at the last minute – we should have known what was to come later after his rambling pre-game talk.  However, unlike last year, we did not switch off before kick off. In fact in less than 10 minutes into the game we were 5 points up when the opposition full back took his eye off the high ball and the subsequent boot forward was gathered by Tim Crossingham to cross the line for a try on his debut.  Unfortunately the conversion came back off the crossbar – I swear there was a 60mph gust of wind on an otherwise still day…

Although, our play was not great, we managed to double our lead when a strong and very meandering run from Martin Smith took us to their 5m line and the ball eventually came out for T Crossingham to score once more in the left corner.  Thankfully no-one has yet told him what his award is for scoring twice on debut.

Poor tackling was to blame for allowing ODs back into the game. A series of attempted shirt pulling and air grabs allowed their centre to make 60m and from the resulting set play another missed tackle resulted in them scoring under the posts and getting the conversion. Hopefully we have learnt the lesson – TACKLE ON SHORTS.

From then on it was not pleasant watching for anybody. A series of scrums, line-outs and very dubious penalty decisions made it a broken game, but credit must go to the forwards, especially Tim Dunford, Pete Young and Nick Mottershead, for stealing so much opposition ball at the set piece.  The game was stopped abruptly when the ref (so far not our favourite) did not allow ODs to play their latest penalty due to yours truly splitting his head open. The sacrifices I make for this club.

Overall the performance pretty much lived up to its billing as first game of the season with a lot of basic errors, but there is clear evidence that this team will not be struggling at the bottom of the table. However, we need to put in the commitment for both Saturdays and at Tuesday training and if we do we should be again be competitively vying for the top.

Harps