Lots of effort, and lots of rain, but not a lot of points.

After the debacle of the Harlow game last week, we were looking forward to a more straightforward and less frustrating game this week, knowing we were playing a team we should win against. As usual, by Thursday our team was looking short (in the backs again), and realistically saved only by the 5s also having to cancel a game due to their lack of players, so thanks to everyone who played this weekend.
Hendon unfortunately rejected our early kick off to watch the England game, and play in the light, meaning we kicked off at 2.30, and to say the least the day was damp, dingy and steadily worsened. We kicked off, and it was immediately clear that it was never going to be a day of fast flowing champagne rugby. Passing was made difficult by catching a ball made apparently, to me at least, soap, and there was a lot of spilt ball and knock ons.
The scrum was, as usual, an extremely strong component of our game, clearly dominating the Hendon scrum with excellent work from the entire pack, and we were unlucky not to score with 2 successive push over tries in the top left hand corner, the ball not being touched down possibly due to the unfamiliar position of Conrad who after dribbling the ball about 4.95 metres found the twisting of the pack too much to keep control of the ball. Fortunately a few minutes later, again I the top left corner, after a series of rucks, including a run from Jerry from a standing start and taking 6 players to stop him, Brian Finch went over ably assisted by 3 other forwards for a well taken try.
Lowlights of the first half unfortunately include me being put into space and the ball slipping helplessly through my hands (twice), but also the inability of this team to find a style of play that worked. Forwards won excellent ball, but needed to make more phases of play after winning good ruck ball; so many knock ons and so John kicking but the ball not going where expected or having players chase the ball up (we are a 4th team) resulting in a lack of coherent game play from us.
Unfortunately they scored 2 tries in this half, both from missed tackles and their 10 running through gaps that should not have been there, but very well taken by him. There could have been more as well if not for 2 close forward passes judged against Hendon.
In the second half we swapped Sean Banks and John Skelton to try a different tack, and resolved to hold on to the ball more, and ensure we did not give them loose ball, which didn’t really go to plan all the time, partly because by now the rain started coming down in bucketful’s, and to be honest it just seemed one of those days.
They scored another try fairly early on (I can’t remember how), and our increasing frustration with the weather, each other, inability to successfully penetrate their line didn’t help matters. We spent about 10 minutes in their 22 at one point involving penalties, dominant lineout and scrums but possibly due to a lack of trust in passing and catching several players ran a few steps too far and somehow we didn’t score – also due to Hendons resolute defence to be fair.
As the half progressed, whilst clearly every player was working hard and no lack of guts or effort, it did feel that this game was just not going our way. This feeling was with about 15 minutes to go as the lights went out leaving us playing in near dark, heavy rain and getting steadily more frustrated (especially Mr Drew at one point! – who at one point did not look happy when he ran round a ruck, straightened up and saw 60 whole meters to run!)
Again, from my perspective the worst moment of the game was me calling to get the ball wide (actually catching it!) then spinning a pass to Skelton and realising the second the ball had gone realise that it was about to be intercepted. An opposition player run onto it for an infuriating interception pass to run and score under the posts. Really topped off my day nicely.
In summary, Hendon won but scored 3 of 4 tries through 2 missed tackles and an intercepted pass, illustrating how I feel we could have won, but really didn’t come close to it at all.
Man of the Match – mentions for Jerry for helping destroy their scrum and if nothing else his standing start run; Higgsy for his strong running and superb tackling; Conrad for his efforts of offer a runner and making good yards; Matt Thompson for being a second row but standing on the wing the entire match looking bloody cold and not sure he touched the ball, but coming off with a great attitude! Actual MoM to Bryan Finch for his superb work in the scrum, lineout (throwing and tidying up) and round the field.
Dick of the Day (renamed “Not Quite So Heroic Player award” this week only) goes to me, for 3 dropped balls (2 with a gaping hole to run through their line) and an intercepted pass. (Never thought I’d do this!) Bugger.