STAINES 13 CS RUGBY 18

The rugby fixture calendar dictates that on week two of the season you should play your nearest and dearest rivals in your league and for CS Rugby this means of course Staines.

A third consecutive victory for the “Stags” against the “Swans” in this fixture, since it has had National League status , ensured that West London bragging rights stay with the Duke's Meadows’, Chiswick based, side.

A great mystery, however, was how they made such a meal of it, waiting until 70 minutes to draw level and to 78 minutes to clinch the win. Yet they had been clearly the more impressive side for all bar a few short spells of the game with more or less any match stat one might think of going in their favour.

Going behind after just a few minutes (0-7 to a Swan’s No 8 Kerry Boyd try converted by Richard Mahony) in what turned out to be the Swans’ best sustained period of joined up rugby in the game, was not ideal of course but once that minor storm had been weathered, CS appeared set fair with a steady flow of possession, once in a while augmented by some superb counter-rucking, and most of the rest of the half played well away from any sort of CS danger area.

Losing 2nd row Chris Endersby, who had fought back so courageously from serious injury last season, early on, was a dent to morale but hardly impacted on the shape of the game.

The gap was duly narrowed by two James Houston penalties albeit that these were a poor return for such dominance. Great credit must go to the home side’s very committed defence. As so often happens, that resilience was rewarded by a break-out and a CS infringement saw Mahony kicking a further penalty and Staines sucking their oranges presumably wondering how on earth they were going to hold on to their improbable 10-6 lead.

The best way to hold on to a lead is to increase it and the home side did just that fifteen minutes into the second half: again totally against the run of play, although losing an attacking lineout and then infringing near the halfway line is never a good idea when there is a kicker of the quality of Richard Mahoney in the opposition's ranks.

Still, the CS supporters - in a good crowd for a game at this level - were not too dismayed: games tend to be won and lost in the last quarter after all and so indeed it proved.

CS, admittedly, had to opt for a slightly higher risk strategy to turn the glut of possession they were enjoying into points. As they put more width on the ball so Staines became more and more stretched and the crucial openings appeared. Staines lost a player to the bin and an advancing scrum, a big blind side and Tim Wells' composure, with Houston then doing the difficult needful, ensured that now it was no longer a question of whether Staines could hang on for an improbable win but whether they could hang on to secure a draw.

They could not. Despite CS’s open side, Joe Clarke, electing to keep Staines company in the bin, a driving maul from yet another close range lineout with just minutes to go was clinically efficient and lock, Cameron Reed, who had replaced the unfortunate Endersby, delivered the score that finally put the game beyond a Staines side who had, by and large, lived on morsels but scrapped mightily.

CS coach, Stefan Smith, was this week not doing his full Graham Henry impersonation: “The team displayed grit , especially when we lost Enders so early in the game. The forwards won the game in the final 20. Sam Glasson and Joe Clarke were very prominent with James Houston and Phillip O’Leary threatening in the backs.” And so indeed it had been.

CS tries: Tim Wells, Cameron Reed.

CS cons: James Houston (1)

CS pens: James Houston (2)