Final Festive Foray

The last game day before Christmas and the festive mood was in the air. With Christmas jumpers and a seasonal knees up in the club house afterwards it was set to be a great day; and with only a short away trip who could complain?
After a brief worry over cars and numbers and the inevitable failed phone calls to confirm who was travelling direct, five of us arrived at in the changing room at Spartans. To find just four team mates.
A delay in kick off saw our numbers rise to 14 and eventually Max Vlahakis de-selected himself from the 1s to fill in the last spot.

In the brief chat with the referee he told us the opposition had pre-emptively warned him about feeding at the scrum. Nice one boys! We were told to expect strong scrummaging from the off and he was extra sure to check we’d all played in the front row before. I’m going to put that down to our youthful good looks rather than anything else and it did nothing more than fire us up for the contest.

Lucky really as in the first half there were approaching 35 scrums (or it at least felt like it) and we got started pretty early too.
Whilst tough we were more than up to the challenge in the scrums and with a stand in hooker-for-the-day in Andy Jacobs and me only having propped for half a season we did well. Andy “Darren” Coveney had far the more difficult prop to handle and he certainly found that his oppo could scrummage almost as well as he could moan at the ref.
Darren did put in a shift in the loose as usual and added a tasty hit to his highlight reel. A Spartans forward took a short line from the 10 off the back of a ruck and was promptly dumped back on top of it again. Much to the glee of his three team mates stuck at the bottom.

The game seemed to stop frequently for errors and set piece play which Aston narrowly had the better of. In the rucks we were a bit slower to commit than we needed to and when numbers did get there far too many stuck around needlessly. I’m pointing the finger squarely in my direction for that too.
Our backs terrified the opposition who did everything they could to avoid bringing their own into play. Kaleil and Aaron made great yards with the ball and we narrowly avoided a score towards the end of the half.
Lots of knock-ons and stumbles led to a scrappy affair and the pitch, which looked top notch to begin with, started to look like a cattle yard pretty quickly.
The half ended with Andy Coveney needing to go off nursing his old shoulder injury and we had a reshuffle. Scrum half come flanker Joe Carroll moved into second row to replace Karl Denneny who stepped in at tight head.
As a result I got the old grizzled prop switch over to my side and my fun half of scrummaging quickly changed for a painful lesson in damage limitation. Not all glamour and glitz in the front row!

The Spartans pack had ran hard lines all half but to no real avail in the face of the Aston defence and, honestly, their error count, which was as bad as our own.
Unfortunately for Aston their 10, who’d made no mark at all in the first half, stepped out and started to play like Michalak who he had more than a passing resemblance to.
His exploitation of territory from the boot led to their first try and despite phase after phase being beaten back by Aston and a break away from Mark Almond, their failure to release him on the deck caught no interference from the referee and Spartans scored.
A conversion followed and we were, unfairly, 7-0 down.

The half saw more of a flow to it with us gifting them a little more possession than we should have and we got punished for it. A minor offence in the middle of the park saw Spartans add three from a penalty and Aston were 10 down.
The patchy play saw some good Aston breaks and better tackles too. Calum Stafford hit possibly the best kick to touch a flanker has ever made and there was a lot the team could be proud of out on the park.
I did manage to put in my worst line out throw ever which I’m going to put down to having two scrums collapse on me, again, and the deteriorating pitch started to take a toll on our effectiveness all over.

The scrum, with a bit less experience than we’d have liked, suffered a few rapid backwards runs but against a side that is so well drilled from 1 to 8 we could leave the pitch with our heads held high. Even if our necks were struggling to lift our chins that far by the end.

A momentary lapse in concentration let their resurgent fly half step through a dog leg large enough to fit on a wolfhound; and Spartans added a second try. Michalak no. 2s conversion missed as his luck seemingly ran out and that was the last points on the board for the day.

The half saw some sterling work from John Pollard who mopped up the scrappiest of awful ball at the back of the scrum and Joe Carroll steal so much opposition line out it was outrageous.
The Spartans prop was also their line out thrower and he would not stop bleating about getting a metre gap at the line.
He got it much more than his constant harping would have anyone believe and still Joe stole the ball.

There were moments where discipline looked to wander and it seemed we got pulled in to a definite game plan from our opposition who were more than happy to keep it tight and slow the game right down.
A few wiser (older) heads on the pitch might well have seen another outcome and some subs would have been downright lovely.

All in all not the result we wanted for our final game of 2014 but some great positives to take forward.
I’d like to echo what was said at the end of the game and thank all of those that have played this year, and all of those that have toiled behind the scenes to get the games on, the players there, and the atmosphere that make this a great side to play in.
If you’ve not featured much this season, or not at all, then make yourselves available and get down and play. That’s all it takes to keep our great club going. Players on the pitch with the great attitude and effort we’ve got right now.
Merry Christmas boys and girls; and roll on Boxing Day!