Men’s 1st XV v Old Reigatian 06/03/2010

Away – London 2 South East

Report by Andy Ward

Won 35-9

Well this was much, much better. A thousand times better than the last excursion. We played as a team, gelled well together and used the ball well.

OR, as a force, were a mere shadow of last year but that takes nothing away from a good performance by Hove. In my opinion, the half back pairing worked extremely well and the ball was out quicker and passed longer allowing Ads to stand off more and that extra second. As a result, kicks were going to space and chases were occurring.But, much more than that, passes and runs by both half backs were causing great stress to the OR defence. Then with Paul at centre a quick offload brought holes in the OR line time and again which were well exploited by Hove.

The first ten minutes saw a penalty each as the combatants weighed each other up. Hove seeing that there wasn’t a lot to concern then started to play the game. The forwards were good and Josh Wren was immense. Playing on his wrong side and up against a chap described by the OR programme as “The Beast” (I wonder if that’s his official name on the RFU card?) Josh repeatedly drove him back and up – so much so the guy had to go off with popped ribs midway through the second half. His replacement fared little better.

But, I get ahead of myself and will return to that subject presently. Just inside a quarter of an hour, good play saw Hove pile on the pressure and win a line. The ball caught cleanly by Jamie (again!) was passed down and along the line. Hand to hand in as good an example of play as you will see saw the ball come to Nick Marshall who went over for the first try of the game.

Two minutes later it was Chris Eden’s turn to get the glory as another great move straight from the OR KO saw Hove advance down the park and turn possession and territory into a pretty much unchallenged score. Flapping arms and direction less lunges by any team will not a tackle make!

And so it was to prove as Chris touched it down with OR looking bemused. Ben missed the kick but Hove were still 13-3 to the good. Game on.

A penalty was given for infringement but the kick just escaped Ben although it was close. I’d have expected the Blakey automatic arm extender to have shot up like the proverbial rat and the drainpipe, but no – the cider was taking its toll.

Two minutes later after the forwards had combined to blast OR out of the game with Rory, Josh and Liam causing all sorts of problems, the ball fell to skipper Glenn to take over for Hove’s third try of the day. The extra two were gobbled up by Ben and Hove went into the half time leading by 20 points to 3. Liam had sadly decided he needed a break and the referee had let him have 10 minutes rest for killing the ball.

The second half started pretty much like the first with a ten minute or so period of nip and tuck before OR took advantage of an infringement to take their score to 6 points. The referee was blowing up for the scrum rather a lot I thought and especially so as we were winning it hands down. He must have seen those infringements that only backs can see when reffing a scrum!

Hove had a shot at stretching the lead again with a penalty of their own, but this just fell short. But within three minutes the hairless one went over for a further try and Ben kicked the conversion.During the kicking the Beast went off and Josh had won that battle hands down. Sadly, the coaches replaced Josh and he was in line for the man of the match award in my book, but the rule is you have to be on for the entire game. But, I’m certain, with this type of performance, Josh’s name will be appearing again.

The other subs were brought on in two minute intervals either side of Ben slotting a penalty for Hove and Ben went off for Tommo, and Dave for Jake with wee Dom already having replaced Josh.

Hove managed a final try by eventual man of the match – Rory (Worwy from the touch lines…) but the kick escaped Ben.

So, 35 points to 9 and a good win. No tries against although perhaps Gary will want to do something about the penalties – it would be churlish to criticise. This, make no mistake, was a good performance – the best I have seen this side of Christmas and it bodes well for the rest of the season.

With Deal doing us a favour and beating Warlingham by 20 points to 5 we are still second in the table but 5 points clear of Sevenoaks with a game in hand and 6 points clear of Warlingham. Maths informs us that should we win two more games then we are confirmed as runners up in the league, but we need to continue to get the points to go for the home draw in the play off.

London Irish seem to be favourites for the top slot in the South West and Tottonians, Guildford and Guernsey have just two points separating them.The games are there to be won, but they must be won. We need a five from five with 10 points in the run in starting with ODs next week (away), KCS (home), Lewes (away), Deal & Betteshanger (home) plus the rearranged Warlingham fixture at home.

Well done guys – keep it up.When the new site is released, then videos will be selectable from the match report. Until then, you’ll have to make do with links. All videos are on YouTube and there are some for each game since KCS away in December.