Men’s 1st XV v Purley John Fisher 17/10/2009

Away – London 2 South East

Report by Andy Ward

Won 34-12

Summary: We won. We won away. And that is what we must take from this. If you are winning and especially winning away, then things are going well.

That aside, this was a game that I am sure spectators will quickly forget. I suspect that may also be true of the players. But as I said earlier – we won. And a win is two points and we are still second in the league (well – when the RFU sort the web site out we will be!).

Other teams also had good wins at the top of the table and so there is no room for complacency, no room for missing games and certainly no room for dropping points. So, 15 on the pitch at all times please guys!

Well, prior to the game, young Billy Two Hats (now also becoming known as Twelve Trees…) had decided that we would drive up and seek out a local hostelry to refresh the inner man prior to the game. Young Birdshit had wangled his way in by Friday as had old Jamie. As it transpired, Jamie couldn’t make it and so at the Club we were prevailed upon to take the lovely Neesha and the less lovely Tom Le Mehaute.

Two Hats had done it again and 5 drinks and 2 lunches were bought for less than a score and so the inner man replenished we drove the remaining half mile to PJF and were now ready for the game.Sadly, the game wasn’t ready for us and despite Hove trying to play they were not allowed to by some confusing refereeing decisions, injuries to both sides – but mainly PJF who must have used 5 subs at least including having to send someone to get changed at one point!

I rather thought there were strict team sheets to govern this – and by some strange flag waving.

The plus points of the game were that we won and stay in contention towards the top of the table and there were some good individual performances. Special mention must go to the front row who had PJF skewered all ends and had Paul stayed on the pitch the whole game, then I think he would have got MOM. So, it was either Dom or Rory with the vote going to Rory after a close call. And several pints!

Dipo had a good game but still sometimes overruns when going for a tackle when if he had have made contact then the opponent would likely have been down for some time. He also scored two tries and had two disallowed – the second one earning him a yellow for remonstrating.

But, it has to be said that he had some justification. The flag waving touch judge said he had seen a foot out – but it was certainly not Dipo’s as he was well in the field of play. The story was then changed to “well, he had hold of him so if he was out they were both out” – which is an interesting interpretation of the laws.

Even the PJF coaching team hung their heads at that decision and to a man – and all praise to them for admitting it – they stated that the TJ had got that badly wrong. But these things happen in games and you just have to get on with it and knuckle down. It’s no good being a spectator for 10 minutes – you can do nothing about it there.

Hove had a penalty awarded against them for shouting too loudly and I must scan the law books for that one.

So, a messy game and not one that will rank in the annals (that’s two n’s – nothing to do with pants!) of history – but as we were discussing on the way back – do many away games actually stand out? Probably not and certainly not this season where it is all about getting a result. And rightly so.

There were two moments of serendipity – when you just have to bring a smile to your face. The first was after the PJF scrum half had been coming round too far too many times and the ref was ignoring it. Suddenly, he became “entangled” in the Hove pack as they tightened their bind. Flapping around like some fish out of water and squealing to the referee (as scrum halves are prone to do) he just could not extricate himself. Not many people had a great deal of sympathy for his plight.

The next time was just as Matt Sole scored the last try and was released by skipper Glen. Somehow – the PJF defender who was chasing Glen just couldn’t find his way past him to go after Matt. He too was squealing like a stuck pig and talking about shirts being grabbed? Can’t think how that could have happened.

So, next week we are away at Bromley and another result is needed. It may not be pretty but you can’t have that every week. It’s about what the league table says and currently it says second.Well done all.