A battle of the Edwardians IIs

It was a very mixed day for the 2s, taking their familiar trek across town on a cold December lunch time.
For one thing we were late.
Just about in time to change and get out on the pitch and the game was afoot.
Though we had 17 in total we were short in a couple of key areas and two lads did us proud by stepping up. Joe Carroll dropped in at 9 and Andy Jacobs got front row membership for the day by playing at Hooker.
They both dropped out of the back row, an area we had an abundance of cover in with almost 8 of the 17 able to play there.

The pitch was very strange indeed. It changed from frozen and firm to soft and sticky with mud and the scrummaging was a nightmare of slips, trips and drunken looking falls. And that was just me.

Without an adequate warm up in the freezing temperatures Aston started the game cold and the try count started and early and climbed. In the oppositions favour of course.
Five Ways had two big ball carries and two fast backs. Combined with a silver haired 10 that knew his game and communicated well their simple game plan paid dividends.

Aston fought well and where we played simple phases, kept the ball and attacked with ball in hand we did well. When we threw shoddy passes to nowhere and failed to tackle low we were utterly undone.
Mirroring last week we conceded all but one try in the first half, and looked much better all together in the second half.
Our opposition had paid us plenty of respect by warming up for well over an hour before the game started. We barely pulled a couple of line out run throughs before kick-off loomed.
We also suffered a little in terms of line out as we had John Pollard as our sole jumper but in terms of stats we had almost all of the lineouts and only had three go astray. Five Ways only had two and fluffed one of those, so we looked more composed in that department. All despite only having one un-injured lifter.

As for the scrum it was a harder day at the office. The slick pitch led to me falling on my face a couple of times and all the players struggled for purchase. We fought well as a pack and did ourselves proud in a hard fought series of scrums. We only lost one in any meaningful way and in terms of wins we got more than a few to wheel and wheel well.
I was pushed so hard forward I was practically sprinting during our best scrum. It was like someone somewhere had rung for last orders.

John Pollard was a stand out man as usual with plenty of running and fight in the loose. His pick ups at 8 saved us in the quagmire of mud, and took some pressure off Joe in his first game at scrum half.

He scored our first try too, again as per usual. He chided himself for not marking up the Five Ways crash ball merchants but in the first half there were many who could have chastened themselves for the same reason.
A number of tackles went astray early doors, most for being far too high and lazy.

Kaleil showed his danger when we did have possession and he was brought into play often by Max Vlahakis at 10 but neither had the amount of ball they would have liked. The players outside Kaleil might have seen more of the ball if it had not been for the conditions under foot and the tendency to slip, but it must have been a frustrating day to be out wide. Cold too!

The tackles were starting to land and a tasty effort led to a Five Ways player going off with a suspected broken ankle; but heart felt enquiries later on confirmed it was only a dislocation. Still, not the first time John Pollard has given the ambulance service to do on a Saturday I’m sure.
Aaron, another BCU man, scored our second try. He had far more space to play with and it was testament to the side’s grit and endeavour that we’d managed to have some breathing room with ball in hand.
It should have been the third try but Joe Carroll managed to ground the ball only to be bounced up and have a meaty palm of the opposition sit under the ball. By the time the ref caught up he just called what he saw. Luckily his ears took a bit longer to catch up with him and he missed an enthusiastically Anglo Saxon cry of disappointment.

Andy Coveney came through the game largely unscathed despite taking the ball into contact numerous times and then being left on the ground clutching head, shoulder and gentleman’s vegetables. It seemed he was playing a long winded version of head, shoulders knees and toes.
His opposition prop almost had his head and shoulders meet his knees a few times so it looks like Andy was taking a side line in education at scrummage time.

Speaking of Andy’s there was a lot to be said for Andy Jacobs today. He hit every ruck unless he’d just carried the ball into it, and jackalled fiercely and annoyingly for Five Ways all through the game.

Many of the boys ended up out of position with a total of four restart kickers in operation and a game of musical statues taking place in the back field with Mark McInerny.

Lucas took himself off with a foot injury but before that had been another battler in the back row and David “Flashcard” Ingleby fought with grit and fire in the engine room of the scrum with Daz Hamilton. He also did his usual late paced hit on a try scorer, just to make everyone feel at home.

Bones dropped back into hooker at half time and I think it was safe to say that he was as relieved to be in there as Andy Jacobs was to be out.
A good display in the set piece by all 8 belied the score and some of our strongest scrummaging performances didn’t get what they deserved in terms of possession, let alone points.

Sadly the score actually escapes us.
We know we scored 12.
We think the opposition scored 13. Tries.
Ok so probably not that many but in our discussions after the match, and the official long gone, we, nor the opposition, had not a clue as to the final score.
Suffice to say we conceded no more than 2 in the second half and probably a lot more than that in first half.
One conceded try was quite memorable as the Five Ways winger, in the try zone, popped the pass out to his centre so he could score under the posts. Very gentlemanly I’m sure and firmly in the Edwardian spirit. Even if it was completely nuts.

It must be said however that the game was played in the proper rugby spirit and there was nothing more than gamesmanship and cheeky rule bending during the game and no side looked to unfairly influence or to step outside the laws.
The club house welcome was no less than we’d expect from our rivals and even though it was bitter cold it was a warm feeling even in defeat. Probably down to the nicely heated changing rooms and hot showers.
Although more than 7 chips per person would be appreciated next time guys, if you can look into that for next time.