Aston Old Edwardians 17 - 38 OId Halesonians III

Rather than a 1s or 2s fixture this week we had a full club game, pitting a blend of the two sides against a team that vaguely represented the Old Hales 3s. A few of the wiser heads in the Aston ranks (yes there are some) recognised that they may have had a few players from higher up the sides too.
With the wider coverage of the results through various club websites there will start to come a point where Aston’s poor record of late leads to teams arriving in very confident mood.
Old Hales admitted that they had turned up expecting to turn Aston over and that there would be a great opportunity for their lads to turn on the style and put some points on the board.

Sadly in the first 20 minutes they’d managed to cross for two tries.
A mixture of quick hands getting the ball out wide and finding easy gaps in the defensive line gave Old Hales the opportunity and the points.
14-0.

Levi Myers stepped up with an outstanding score with a great burst down the left wing. His desire to hit the ball head on at pace was at this time tempered with great vision and he held his depth perfectly to pick up the pass.
14-5.

The fast pace of the game did tell and Aston were being picked off at rucks with numbers not quite reaching in time to secure the ball. Also the Hales maul was a potent weapon, well organised and not short of pace, and it served to put them in position to press the home defence.

The lineout faltered for Aston with a new mix of lifters and jumpers and some acclimatisation to the calls all leading to some scrappy ball. The Hales line was often solid and their first pod particularly got great height. Their four ball was well disrupted by Pete Carroll and John Pollard got in the mix when they hit at 3.

The scrum saw Aston largely achieve parity and sometimes even take a forward step. Featuring players out of position and all new partnerships the players from 1 to 8 did very well to gel so quickly and absorb the pressure of the Hales scrum. Karl Denneny did himself proud with a great shift next to Daz Hamilton in the engine room of the second row and the back row of Carroll, Pollard and PB did their usual disruptive damage in and around the base.
Growler didn’t have to shout as loudly at his props as they were younger than they have been in the last couple of weeks, and to be honest, there wasn’t too much wrong with the work being done.
If a stable group could be established, playing week in week out together, the Aston pack might begin to emulate some of those from years gone by.

To judge the backs would be harsher on a game where they had so little ball, but they definitely didn’t suffer from what Glenn Hoddle would have described as the Andy Cole syndrome.
Any sniff of the ball and the backs were always on the front foot and looked to make it count as much as possible in our favour.
A few niggling errors can be blamed again on establishing relationships with players who as yet might not have played together for a full 80 minutes so far this season.

The half did end up with Aston on the end of a hefty beating with Hales sticking another 4 tries onto the two they’d scored earlier. At 38-5 we were looking at a massively uphill struggle just as we changed ends to play down the slope and with the wind.

The second half was a different story. You’ll forgive me not remembering who came on for who as there were more than one or two changes but the momentum hit in Aston’s favour.
Fire in the belly was easy to see and was no better personified than by the tackling of Carl Stephenson. He’d tackled well all game but in one run of play he seemed to hit every ball carrier coming forward off the Hales line.
Darren Hamilton made a nuisance of himself, and Paul Bradley showed his wealth of experience by throwing in some superbly timed tackles that snuffed out more than a few emerging breaks.
Micky Watts marshalled everything as well as he always does and if he wasn’t constantly in your ear letting you know where to be and what to do you were probably next in line. Or a spectator.
Then again he did try to rob Tony Parry of his beer with a well-aimed head shot so even the crowd aren’t safe from the attention of the Aston 9.
Sam Massey had a day of kicking he’ll probably not remember fondly but he linked well with Micky and was dangerous with ball in hand and he brought Carl and Kaleil into the game well.
Freddy Brittain played with assured control and was often the one with ball in hand when possession came our way.
Tom Dartnell found out that he wasn’t Darren Gardner as he took a big hit from a Hales forward and was barrelled into touch. He made some of his usual incisive breaks and almost had a try of his own out wide. His nickname seems to be Pass however with the amount of spectators shouting it at him.

The next man on the score sheet was Julius Hunt, another of the changes in the second half.
He ignored the call from Micky and took a narrow line off the back of a ruck and burst through to score.
He continued to make a nuisance of himself in the loose with some great running and he became something of a focus for the Hales forwards. Their front row had been silent all game but suddenly all they could talk about was our number 7.
As if to further highlight how much Aston had got into the oppositions’ head, they had a spate of niggling injuries. They were an industrious bunch who could seemingly heal themselves as soon as the referee had blown the whistle to halt play. This served to stifle a number of opportunities Aston had to take quick tap penalties and punish Hales and drive home the advantage.

The scoreboard wouldn’t lend credence to the fact that Aston were back in the game but our scrum was more than holding theirs, we were forcing them to infringe at the break down and we looked dangerous in the loose. They also had not scored in almost 40 minutes. Their coach looked more nervous than a man with a 38-10 lead should have any right to.
I came off just in time to see Mark McInerney get folded in two by their biggest player by a country mile and Mark hit the ground like a deck chair being put away for the season.
In true style he still brought the man down (with help from Carl) and saved a certain try.
Some great work with quick ball by Ian Lyons set up an Aston break that turned Carl Stevenson from defender to attacker and he took his try with great aplomb.

The second half drew to a rather rapid close and Aston ran out winners two tries to nil. Well in the last half anyway. If the clock had kept on running who knows what the score could have been but I honestly believe we had it in us to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

To echo Dave’s words in the huddle at the end there are some quality rugby players turning out in Aston shirts this season and they have the engines required to put in a proper shift for 80 minutes.
If we’d have thrown everything in from the beginning we might have had two halves that turned out like the second instead of just one.

Here’s to carrying that passion forward into our games this week, whichever side you happen to turn out for.