Men’s 1st XV v Charlton Park 05/01/2008

Home – London 4 South East

Report by Andy Ward

Won 20-18

Hove team and supporters were whistling the tune of The Great Escape as the game ended having been out thought, out played and out classed for 70 of the 80 minutes of rugby on Saturday. As one fellow spectator said to me “they look to have run out of ideas”. Had he been in attendance for the full game, he would have realised that slight erroneous nature of his statement in that they hadn’t seemed to have any ideas from the start!

That is perhaps a tad unfair as the pitch state was not to Hove’s liking and again a changed team may have contributed somewhat, but it is most fair to say that Charlton Park stamped their authority on the game with far more purpose until those last, fateful 10 minutes.

Things started brightly with Hove threatening early on and stretching the Charlton defence with a couple of decent forays down the wing. Sadly, that was the last of any great purpose in that half, as Charlton broke away after a mere 4 minutes play and a missed tackle by Hove caused their own downfall. A try was a certainty from the moment the flailing arms of the Hove defender failed in their most basic of responsibilities which is to TACKLE rather than attempt a waltz in the centre of the park.

Possibly, the screening of Strictly Come Dancing has been required viewing for the players! Further defensive indiscretions caused Hove to concede a penalty which the Charlton kicker accepted with undisguised glee to take the score to 0-8 after 20 minutes of play. Hove managed a response after 25 minutes with Alex Robertson converting a penalty, which was the only moment of any interest for Hove in an otherwise dire first half. The referee kindly blew his whistle after the required number of minutes and thus gave the last rites to a first half, which aside from Hove’s ineptitude was marred by a rash of time wasting on behalf of Charlton.

This is a widely accepted move to upset the opposition and put them off their stride and, clearly, it was working very well! The second half started with Hove supporters expecting that the results of a half time bollocking would see renewed purpose and efficacy from the team. Sadly, that was not immediately evident, as within 1 minute of the kick off, Charlton made another break and spotted Hove’s own Fred Astaire in front of him.

Reprising his flailing arms of the first half, the defender again tried to cuddle his opponent into a foxtrot this time (if I’m not mistaken) with, unsurprisingly, a very similar result.

Charlton now were leading by 3 points to 13 and Hove’s prospects were diminishing rapidly. This last did inspire the Hove boys to some effort and a prolonged period camped on the Charlton line ensued. Sadly, a try evaded them and, it has to be said, by some incorrect decision making on the field.

Possibly, the gaps aren’t as easily seen when in the middle of the action but the breaks were going to the left when the gap was on the right. So, all this effort and thus far no reward. When the referee blew for a penalty, the decision was taken to go for the points and in one leap Hove doubled their points tally from 3 to 6 with a swing of Alex’s boot.

Fifty Nine minutes were now showing on Hove’s electronic scoreboard although with all the dropping to one knee by the Charlton players my guess is that only about 45 had actually been played! Still, the playing was mainly done by Charlton and after a further 7 minutes they scored again.

Things were now looking dire and the mood amongst the spectators was one of frustration. At 6-18 down with 6 minutes to go a victory was looking unlikely and Hove may just slip out of the promotion places. In the 74th minutes skipper James Finlason took the ball over and this was converted by Alex to take Hove a lot close at 13-18 down. Could we score one more?

This was appearing even more unlikely as the Hove team could not find the kicking tee and after much messing around the conversion had to be drop kicked by Alex. A note to the coaches can someone please take responsibility for this? With 2 minutes to go, Hove again won the ball and the electrifying skills of Adam Philips shone though and the ball was worked again to James Finlason who scored in the corner to take the scores level.

Sadly, the kicking tee was still on the missing list but this time the possibility of a drop kick was remote. Finally, someone found it (near the Hove 22 now what was it doing there. Normally you put it on the opponents 22!) and it was rushed over to Alex who struck the winning conversion to make the score 20-18. There were a couple of minutes injury time to play and astonishingly all the Charlton injuries seemed to cease as no-one dropped to one knee for the longest period of the game!

It’s always good to see people cured of injuries that could cause them trouble and I’m glad that I was able to see this miracle cure. My mind is so much more at rest. Skipper James then checked with the referee and finding out that time was up, then booted the ball into touch at the first opportunity. A win is a win but much more work needs to be done if the dreams of promotion are to be realised.

After having written the above – which was heartfelt, I feel I have concentrated too much on the negative – so to address the balance somewhat, I must say that I thought Matt Sole had his best game so far for Hove until he had to go off at half time. James Finlason never gave up and Adam’s skills provided the final try.

The line still needs some work – or maybe just a bit of simplifying and confidence? Tackling must be improved but perhaps this was down to a bit of ring rustiness after the break and slight wrong positioning.

But, for at least the 10th time this season I say “thank God we’ve got Glen Rankin” – my Hove Man of the Match – again.And, I do realise its a lot harder out there than it is for fat bastards like me to pontificate from the touch line.