Men’s 1st XV v Old Dunstonian 10/10/2009

Home – London 2 South East

Report by Andy Ward

Won 55-10

On a surprisingly warm October Saturday, almost a year to the day since OD last visited the Recreation Ground, a decent crowd gathered to watch the game kick off thirty minutes early in order to allow OD to travel back for their Club Ball in the evening.

The pair of “anti skid” pants having been presented to Hove skipper Glen Rankin – to prevent any embarrassing moments in the scrums – the other seven now took on an air of quiet relief and would assume that all shouts of “follow through” referred solely to support play.

Two-thirty came and the shrill of the whistle and the accompanying sweep of the arm indicated that the referee was inviting OD to start the game with the time honoured kick off and so it was that they did and the ball came to the Hove team who managed to lose it in about 3 seconds. OD scampered up the field and looked good value until a Hove transgression caused the referee to indicate a penalty and the OD skipper pointed straight to the posts and their kicker steered it straight and true for OD to be perhaps unlikely leaders at 0-3 within the first minute of the game.

At least there would be no repeat of the score last October when Hove overcame OD 63-0. From the kick off, the ball broke for Adam Phillips who proceeded to run through the ODs like a Teflon coated, slippery eel who had just rolled in grease as flailing arms lunged at him in some kind of unbalanced Mexican Wave before Ads had enough of this and passed to Ryan who went over for the try taking the score to 5-3 with only 2 minutes gone as attested by the electronic scoreboard back this week under the watchful eye of Statto. No untrained amateur prodding the dibber this week!

ODs pressed and the ball was with their winger when Dipo decided to race in for the tackle. Freezing the unwary OD in his sights Dipo raced and flattened him in what likely caused the OD winger to have a “Rankin Moment”. Possibly Billy Two Hats could get a second pair of “anti skids” and send them on to cement the friendship between players the world over?Fresh from his tackling success, Dipo was now keen to show all of his silky skills and when Ryan came clear with the ball and set Tom off on a merry gallop, Dipo continued in support and TLM slipped the ball and Dipo caught it before haring into the corner for Hove’s second try. 10-3 said the scoreboard before you could turn round as Statto was showing that his crown of King of the Dibber was not under any threat.

Things went a little quiet for 10 minutes before Hove were awarded a scrum around about the half way line but just inside the OD half. Matt Sole sent the ball out and it arrived in Adam’s hands and this time Ads decided he had the tank to go all the way and set the ball down under the posts to allow himself the glory of the addend of 2 to the augund of his recent 5 and the teams 15 to take the grand total on the Hove side of the scoreboard to 17, whilst the OD side was still stubbornly declaring 3.

A mere 3 or 4 minutes later, Matt Sole made a good break and got the ball out to Ryan no, Dipo, no Ryan, no Dipo and then finally Ryan won the battle with his colleague as they both tried to catch (snatch) the ball and the glory. With Ryan having won this mini tug-o-war he then sailed over the line to take the score to 22-3 with Adam adding the points and so it was 24-3 in the 34th minute of the game.

A little shuffle of the opponents team was followed by a lapse by Hove that let OD in for a converted try in what was to be their last points of the game, and the half finished with Adam slotting over a penalty to take the score to 27-10 at the break.

Half time saw James Finlason come on for Matt Sole and Chris kicked off to start the second half. The ball flew to the OD but they hadn’t counted on Liam charging their way and ripping the ball no sooner had it been caught. This left OD flat footed and Liam charged away and slipped the ball to Ryan and bang! Another five points in the Hove locker followed by the two courtesy of Adam and the half had hardly taken its first breath before Hove had added 7 to the half time score.

The forwards were now all itching to get in on the act and within two minutes, Dave Wattam had added a further try and Adam obliged with the kick. 41-10 read the scoreboard and the time said second half 4 minutes gone.

The Hove coaches decided to shuffle the deck further and Scott Patto was replaced by Ben Coulson. Adam started off on another jinky run and had passed the ball out before the arm of the OD 3 clothes lined him in front of the ref. Ten minutes contemplation was offered to the OD 3 by the referee in the sort of offer that the Godfather made in the Puzo novel and off he went to examine the goal posts of the Hove half.

As the 3 was contemplating his actions, Josh Wren made way for Dom Henderson and the advantage at the scrum was possibly now heightened even more, but Josh had played a good game and deserves a mention in dispatches for that.

Well, the OD scrum now one down, went back quicker than the Italian Army when faced with the Brits in front and a load of free food, drink and women behind them. Like rats up the proverbial drainpipe OD went back at a rate of knots only equalled when drivers of a certain gender are trying to reverse the car into a small space! But the die was cast. OD couldn’t live with Hove when they had 15 on the pitch. With only 14 they were never in it and Ryan, after finishing off a move that started with the scrum superiority and saw the ball played out to both wings, passed the ball to Adam to add the additional two. So, 48-10 and the OD 3 was invited back by the referee and no doubt he had thought how he was going to explain his selfish and stupid actions to the team mates he had let down.

The game moved into its final moments with a kick through by Adam with Ryan following through (no, not like Glen!) and a final try for Ryan which Adam duly converted to take the score to 55-10 in an excellent win.

With Juddians thumping Warlingham, this took Hove into second place in the table and the home game on 7th November looks like it could be a cracker. I advise getting there early and lubricating your vocal chords!Some excellent performances from a lot of players

and I’ve already mentioned Josh Wren who performed well at tight head. Clearly, Ryan with five tries is the obvious contender for man of the match and probably deserves it. But, I’m conscious of this becoming a Ryan/Liam duopoly and so I think I will look elsewhere this week.

So, no tries scored, no mention in the game report, nothing flashy done at all. Just good, solid work throughout the game, always being there when needed, always doing his job quietly but not found wanting. Stand up Jamie Waller this week’s man of the match.

Next week sees us away at PJF – bring your wellies all of you who remember last year’s visit (and don’t ever take Roger Finlason’s advice for a short cut through the field) – who won away at Bromley on Saturday. So, although we would expect to do well, we can take nothing for granted.