12th September 2009
Old Actonian II (10) – Quinin 1st (13)
A fine morning on one of the nicest pitches in the area, everything was perfectly set up for a beautiful flowing rugby game – what could possibly go wrong? Well, it was no South Sea Island classic, but certainly didn’t lack intensity and a tight scoreline kept it interesting right up to the final whistle.
Quintin certainly started the strongest, helped in no small part by Old Acs’ evident rustiness – there were seemingly endless knock-ons from the home side in the first quarter, keeping them trapped in their half, alongside various breakdown-related indiscretions which were to continue throughout the game.
Midway through the half, Quintin pounced! A beautifully struck penalty from Tom gave us the throw ten metres out on the right, Our Glorious Leader hit Johnny in the middle and set up the maul, a forwards try looking inevitable. Actonians did well to keep it out but in doing so were forced to commit too many numbers, and the ball was recycled to the backs who threw it wide for Sanger to run in unopposed on the left touchline. He then missed a relatively simple conversion, but almost immediately from the restart Actonians infringed in front of the posts and he knocked over an easy 3 points to put Qs 8-0 in front.
The latter part of the first half Old Acs improved considerably, stopped dropping the ball so much and played in our half - a series of well executed kicks taking advantage of the slightly imperfect positioning of the back three. At one point they camped on our line for five minutes or so, held out by a fantastic defensive effort and some well-timed quality scrummaging. In the end the most they could grab from the half was a penalty to go in at the break at 8-3.
The second half started even scrappier than the first, not a great spectacle but good practice for the physical intensity we can expect in the league this season. That sort of game seemed to come naturally to Old Acs, more so than to us, but we fronted up and by and large matched them at it. Unfortunately, with about 15 minutes left the home side struck with what seemed to be the killer blow. Despite suspicions (read: ‘absolute cast-iron certainty’) of crossing in the midfield, their winger’s touchdown in the corner was allowed to stand, and the replacement fly-half slotted the conversion (from a very similar position to the one Sanger had missed…) to put them 10-8 in front.
Qs roused themselves to attack again, and soon a spear tackle on Gareth earned us both the extra man for the final minutes and, more importantly, a difficult but kickable penalty for Sanger to make himself a hero.
Inevitably, he only went and London Frenched it.
Fortunately, another hero was at hand, quite possibly the only less popular one. A five metre defensive scrum was pinched against the head and popped out on the blindside; the club’s twenty-fifth choice scrum-half Adam Smith snaffled it up, and took advantage of their winger’s obvious inexperience to sneak through and claim the winning score in the last minute. Several players were heard to remark that they’d have preferred to lose than have that twat score, but the damage was done, and the ref blew for full-time almost straight from the kick-off.
It was certainly an encouraging start to the season, against a side (we later found out) that included a number of Old Actonian 1st team. If we can compete well against a side full of players in the league above us, then it bodes well for the season. However, it did highlight a number of areas we need to improve – none more important than time keeping!!!!!
Men of the match
Charles Matthews and Kerr Nimmo – both showing great dynamism going forward and real commitment in the contact area.
Women of the Match
Damo Mitchell and John Sanger – Damo for dropping the ball short of the line when he should have passed, and John for his London French moment. There is nothing like making a bad moment haunt someone forever!!!
Post Match
Rumours have it that the team headed back to the new clubhouse to join the 2nd team, before some players went off to join Adam Smith in a pub in Baker Street. Adam was so happy he had opened up his try scoring campaign, that he had found a random lady in pub, proposed on the spot and was in the middle of his engagement do when the players arrived. One wonders what he would do, if he were to ever win the Colin Smith Award again!!