Extra A 45 v Datchworth 2s 3

The Extra A faced a struggling Datchworth side this week at Silver Leys in their first game back since a disappointing loss away to Fullerians a fortnight ago. We once again boasted a full squad, complete with 2 front row replacements and a very dangerous back line. We welcomed back Sam Stockley this week, making his first start since he broke his leg a year ago.

Datchworth kicked off and the early signs weren't great; a string of errors frustrated the Extra A for the first 5 minutes. Things started to click though soon after, when a neat chip in behind the oncoming (and offside) Datchworth defence from Spermy saw none other than our leading try scorer Mikey Roberts gather and round the covering defence to score under the posts; the conversion was duly added by Spermy. The game unfortunately descended into a scrappy affair, the Blues giving away a number of penalties, which resulted in Datchworth having a successful shot at goal. Winger Alex Tindall got us back into it though, returning a wayward clearance kick with interest to score out wide after beating 3 defenders; the conversion this time was missed. Our skipper Slade was shown a yellow card soon after for repeat team infringements.

Down to 14 men, the Blues rallied well and after a neat dummy line from Stig dog, Sam 'the leg' Stockley banished demons of a year before when he successfully chipped in behind the defence for Mikey to run on and bag his second of the day out wide; Spermy again missed the conversion. The next try for the Blues was another neat one from the backs after some initial strong line breaks from Mackenzie and our debutant prop, Ed Rudge. Another debutant, Sam Brown at scrum half picked from the scrum and managed to fix 2 defenders and ship it to Sperm who used the dummy line of Adam Clark and found Roberts out wide, Mikey faced the full back and gave a simple inside pass to the Stig to go in untouched, with Spermy adding the conversion. Spermy scored our final try of the half, taking a wide pass from Brown at a penalty to dummy his way over, he added the extras too. The remainder of the half belonged to Datchworth, who pressed our line but resolute Blue defence- most notably from Macfie, Baker and Tindall- managed to repel them for 5 minutes. We went in at half time 29-3 up.

We had fresh blood in Joe Tracy and Alex Wilson who came on for daddy cool John Carter and Josh 'Optimus' Prime respectively at half time; James Copper also entered the fold soon after for Ed Grudge, who put in a solid display on debut. The second half started brightly and several line breaks from Clarke and Tindall saw us go close, but we often let ourselves down with the last pass. After a solid catch and drive from a well worked line out put us on the front foot, a neat loop move in midfield saw Sperm re-gather a well weighted pass from Stockley behind the back of Clark, with a 3 on 2 Sperm gave a miss pass (to the horror of Stig who was apparently in a gap) a Roberts beat 1 man but got wrapped up by 2 defenders just inside the opposing 22, Spermy fortunately continued his line and collected a neat back-hand flick from Roberts to finish close to the posts; the fly half converted his own score. We lost Slade (again) soon after when he split his eye open. The final try was certainly the best of the day, and probably the season for the Extra A; Roberts gathered the ball within his own half and beat 2 defenders before finding Sperm who cut an inside line, Sperm managed to beat 1 defender, and, as he was tackled by the covering defence, found Mikey this time on his inside with another pass out of the back of the hand, Mikey ran toward the line and just before he made it, fell over like he'd been shot. Fortunately his momentum took him over and the try was scored and converted. The final score was 45-3.

Although not at our best, it was a solid performance from the Extra A, and it must be said that it was certainly a week for the backs to showcase their skills, with all 7 tries coming from them. Dick of the day contenders included Sperm (dodgy dive for first try), Slade (Binned & the ref hated him) and Roberts for almost butchering an excellent try; however, we did have one man turn up at half time, so the award went to the king himself, Elvis Copper. Man of the match was deservedly given to our prolific leading try scorer Mikey Roberts, for shredding the defence and bagging a hat trick.