Stortford IV's get the double over Cuffley, winning 7 points to 6!

After last weeks should/could have won match but didn’t, and the return of our the Lipscombe brothers , we faced Cuffley – or Cuddly as my phone preferred – on the back of a run of defeats, knowing we should not have lost most of them. Having played them about 5 times in the last year, we knew what to expect, and with a good team we looked to take them on at home on a clear day.
Lippi kicked off, the ball falling on the 10 metre line but given short by the ref gave our forwards the chance to assert themselves in the scrum which they did, nudging the rather large Cuffley pack backwards, which the continued to do for the first half, led by props Jerry and James Copper. After about 5 minutes Stortford had realised that 3 things were obvious… Our backs could rip them to shreds; they had no attack other than a very good kicking and (individually) running 10; and that as usual their pack had 2 players intent on turning a game of rugby into a series of fights.
Brownie displayed most untypical reservation when being hit, after being tacked (with no arms) about 3 seconds late several times although at one point I did have to pull him off said player. In the meantime Stortfords forwards were earnestly winning ball, and our backs were making 40 – 60 odd yards, but unfortunately all these surging moves were scuppered by the final pass being awful. After 30 minutes or so of this pattern however, and virtually all the territory, we had not managed to breach their line. This was partly the very poor final passing, and partly the referee getting very upset with our forwards for going straight over the top of the rucks. This allowed their 10 to effectively clear their lines, and when we did it in our half their 10 kicked well again, but this time for 3 points.
Half time was 0 – 3 to Cuffley, with even the referee telling me we should have been more than 20 points up by now.
The second half led to a change of prop, welcoming Simon Lipscombe back to the fray in place of the ever green Jerry, and Sean Lumley replacing the recently returned Jarvo at 15. We planned to keep the game moving quickly and take tap penalties and to play a similar structure but actually pass properly in this half.
Unfortunately the very superior weight of the Cuffley pack began to tell, and they began to dominate the scrum but in the lineout we had a secret plan. We started throwing the tallest man up, Mark Becket up at 4, something surely nobody would expect, however Cuffley clearly were unable to cope with his airborne excellence as he cleanly won every ball to him, no doubt also due to the excellent (but occasionally wonky) throwing of Matt Free.
Despite the changes in the scrum we set about the second half with steely determination, and the knowledge that we had more in every other department than Cuffley. We continued to make huge ground in the backs, particularly through the battering ram that is Spencer Kersey who survived several punches to the head from the Cuffley 8 for having the temerity to run towards him. The referee finally caught him for the second time and he received a red card (after a yellow in the first half, also for punching). This was the pattern for about 10 minutes apart from one brief visit to our half resulting in a penalty making the score 0 – 6 Cuffley! This however doubled our determination, and we then camped about 5 meters from the tryline before following another penalty from Cuffley, Aaron screaming for the ball, ran across the posts and then through 5 players to score a try at full reach. Unfortunately Cuffley then ripped it from his hands before the ref got there, and so could not award the try much to Aarons amazement.
Continued pressure in their 22 however led to a loose ball picked up by their inside centre in front of me. Gleefully seizing on this opportunity I hit him at (my) top speed, and knocked the ball loose. As I picked myself up I heard him say “Oh F*:&” and on looking up saw Matt Free jumping on the ball behind their try line to score the winning try, converted calmly by Lippi to take us 1 clear.
At this point, we should have been about 30 up, but with dominant scrums, and Cuffley determined to win their first game of the season they managed to sustain considerable pressure on our tryline for 10 minutes after this. After around 10 losing scrums and a similar number of try saving tackles Cuffley however had not been able to breach our defence, but they did then have a scrum under our posts penalised for their flanker breaking his binding early 6 m from our try line. “Thank god” we thought, and despite Lippi’s ‘dodgy’ kicking from hand looked forward to relieving the pressure from his kick. “Just get us out of our 22” I asked the man who can kick a rugby ball as well as anyone I have seen, and under huge pressure. Lippi stepped up from 6 yards out, and booom! The ball sailed out into touch. 4 yards from our try line….
Crystal Hadley also deserves a mention at this point. “10 minutes, and you’ll come on” I told him. 10 minutes later to the second, a beaming Hadley appeared on the pitch making 16. Camped defensively on our line, I requested the substitution would happen in 2 minutes. 2 minutes later, a beaming Hadley appears again, this time with breathing space to make the sub….
The penultimate mention of the match goes to Pete Richardson, their 10 and his wing had broken though our stout defensive line and were sprinting towards our tryline to win the game. Out of the blue he was hit by a man and ball tackle saving our game, having tracked back from a scrum to catch him!
For this try saving tackle, endless endeavour through the game, saving a lot of ball from a retreating scrum and tackling his heart out, Pete Richardson is man of the match, fractionally ahead of Spencer Kersey who had a huge game in terms of bullocking runs, big hits and an excellent punch bag imitation at one point. This was however a superb example of committed play to a man in the 4s, unfortunately not reflecting the dominance we had for 60 minutes.

Several players made poor passes making applications for dick of the day, but this award goes to the man who kicked the winning points calmly, and yet from a penalty 6 metres from our try line managed to give them a lineout 5 metres… Congratulations Mr James Lipscombe. One box of beers to be provided at your next game, which if next week will be OA’s away.