Men’s 1st XV v Old Elthamians 13/09/2008

Away – London 3 South East

Report by Andy Ward

Lost 7-46

The day started brightly enough with your correspondent managing a pint prior to the coach departing, a couple upon arrival followed by a pretty damn decent hog roast to feed the inner man. The U13 curtain raiser had been played and Hove had won well. A portent of more success perhaps. Sadly, no.

But before I move onto the game itself, perhaps a brief mention of the new strip. Not keen myself – far too much white in it. I did hear that several players were moaning that their shorts were too tight and one (no names) wore his own shorts. Well, what’s the point in that. Management must crack down on this. Sponsors pay a lot of money for branded kit and it WILL be worn! If you don’t want to wear it, then you will not be playing.

Now, back to the afternoon’s entertainment. I had been chatting with Nick (the OE Chairman) and he had said that they had been building during the summer and had a pretty good outfit. Looking at their players warming up you could see he wasn’t joking. They looked very fit, very well drilled, very big and very fast. My initial observations proved to be spot on!

With a merry shrill of his official whistle, Mr. Gibson indicated that play should start and Hove duly obliged by kicking off. We had travelled up hoping for some sort of result, but it became apparent very early on that our work would be cut out and after 7 minutes, OE made a break and (one of) their very fast wingers scorched the earth and popped the ball down for the first points of the game. Duly converted, OE were in front by 7 points and Hove were given the ball again to have another go at kicking off. Thirteen minutes later, a driving maul by OE rumbled towards the Hove line and ELVs or no, it didn’t seem like Hove could stop this in the traditional fashion of pulling it down. Five more points went into the OE locker with their kicker missing the opportunity to add the extra two offered by the laws of the game.

Four minutes later as Hove were in the OE half and won a scrum, sloppy play allowed OE to win the ball and the ball was passed again to OE’s version of Usain Bolt and 0.3 of a trillisecond later, Billy Whizz had popped the ball down under the posts. This time the 10 made no mistake and OE were now 19 points clear. Hove rallied a few times and made progress, but there was no product. At one point debutante Jack Maybanks snatched the ball from a wayward OE pass and was sprinting for the line only to be caught an agonising metre short of the line.

As if buoyed by that try saving defence (take note everyone) OE attacked again and in the 30th minute scored a fourth try which was duly converted.

Thus a disappointing (from a Hove perspective) first half came to a conclusion by the companion blast from referee Gibson’s whistle and time for the coaches to have a chat – and your correspondent a pint. I must say that the OE Carling was not as well kept as Hove’s – so points to us there I feel.

The second half commenced with Paul Smith leaving the field, Rory Chesham moving from Prop to Flank and Dom Henderson coming on and into the front row. This seemed to have a beneficial effect on the scrum and things in general as Hove moved into their best period of the game. I hesitate to call it a purple patch, but things were a lot tighter and in the 45th minute product was achieved with Jack Maybanks making up for his first half close shave by popping over for a try, subsequently converted by Sam Whiting. This was a damn good move by Hove. A scrum was taken on the left flank and the ball was picked up by Glen Rankin at 8, who drove forward. Rory Chesham was backing him up and yards were gained and the ball recycled. The forwards kept this up for a period, sucking in extra OE defenders before scrum half James Finlason picked up the ball and flung it to out half Ryan Morlen. Ryan passed the ball along to Jack as the line was moving inexorably towards the in goal and spotting the gap, Jack went through and scored. It must be said though, that Matt Sole at outside centre and Nick Paddenburg at wing were also there and had there been no gap then they would have scored as the OE defence just wasn’t there in numbers.

Hove continued to press and had several good turns of play. In the 50th minute an infringement in the Hove half gave OE a penalty. All day long they had been running their penalties, but Hove’s recent determination made them pause and think and they opted for a kick and secured the three points. Hove stood firm for a further 20 minutes pressing hard and seeking further points. Sadly, in the 70th minute a wayward pass was intercepted and OE raced in for a fifth converted try. That was the straw that appeared to break the camel’s back of Hove’s resurgence and in the 73rd minute OE got a further interception and scored their sixth try – unconverted and a final break in the 75th minute for a seventh try – converted – broke Hove. The final five minutes were played out and referee Gibson indicated full time and game over.

All in all a disappointing start to our SE3 campaign and one that puts some pressure on for next week when we travel to Lewes (who lost 46-25 at Warlingham). However, we can take some positives out of the performance, but I feel that I must recount the negatives first. Tackling: When OE were running at us was piss poor. The usual Hove fairy dance was to the fore – mainly from the backs. Will you please stop it and tackle the buggers properly? Line Out: Awful. I don’t think we won one in the first half. When we started to, then we lost the ball in the loose. Ball Winning: For large swathes of the game, we were spectators and could not seem to get control of the ball. On the plus side of this particular scorecard were some decent displays by individuals. Jack Baker tackled and got round the pitch like a demon. Alex Yeo was solid and committed. With a few new faces on the pitch, clearly they will settle in and the team will gel, but time is not on our side right now with a must win game next week. For that, however, we will be welcoming back a couple of players who have been away working and that will help. My man of the match – a close call between Jack Baker and Alex Yeo with Jack just edging it. We now know what SE3 is like, so lets build on the experience, work hard as a team and start the winning habit.