Through to the Final !!

THIRD TEAM’S CUP RUN CONTINUES

Welcome back Fresh

After a hard fought win in the league last week, the magic of the cup returned to Hampshire Avenue this weekend as the Mighty Bognor Thirds took on Worthing Knights in front of a very large and supportive crowd.
Having not conceded a point in their run to the semi-final of the Sussex Vase, Bognor knew that committed defence was going to be the key to success against a side from Worthing with many new faces from the one beaten relatively comfortably before Xmas.

Our squad was again impressive in terms of size and depth and featured three of the colts, looking to make their mark in senior rugby, watched proudly from the sidelines by their coach Mr Spurle, who once again had forgotten to bring his own boots.

The day didn’t start well, with a slight mix up around kick off time meaning that the squad only had 30 minutes instead of the usual hour for taking the p**s out of each other before embarking on a warm up that, shall we say, lacked slightly in accuracy!!!

However, some stirring words from senior coaching and playing staff put fire into our brave boys bellies and after some United Nations like negotiations from Mr Russell regarding squad sizes, our warriors took the field, ready for action.

Despite having most of the play and territory Bognor could not convert anything into points on the board. Despite some excellent carries by the forwards and some enterprising work from the backs, marshalled excellently by young Frankie on debut and nine and Jake at ten, it was a day when final passes went to ground or the ball was knocked on close to the line. Mike and Danny made regular breaks in the centre, but frustratingly we just couldn’t turn the pressure into points.

Eventually Worthing, who defended strongly throughout managed to work their way up the pitch and secured a penalty after some alleged indiscretion from Bognor 0-3. Things took an even bigger turn for the worse when Nigel, despite doing his best innocent choir boy impersonation, was sent for a ten minute rest by the referee for accidentally standing in front of their nine (twice) who was looking to take quick tap penalties. Fortunately, Worthing weren’t able to exploit their man advantage and Bognor were able to draw level shortly after, when Jeremy who kicked superbly all day slotted a penalty.

After lots more pressure, Bognor finally secured their first try of the day with a rolling maul that Worthing finally didn’t manage to collapse, seeing Ben collapse over the line. Jeremy slotted the extras and the score was 10 -3 at half time. Due to the referee having to spend a large amount of time telling both sets of forwards off, the first half went on for about an hour, with spectators starting to google what time sunset was.

The half time break saw some changes made to personnel, including the re-introduction of Fresh for his first game for a long while (and it showed lol), TJ looking to make a big impact in the front row and Russ to do what Russ does. Some honest words from the squad meant Bognor came out fired up for the second half.

Bognor really began to turn the screw now, and despite Worthing’s fantastic defence, managed to score a well worked try out wide by our very own Faf de Clerk lookalike, Sam May and another for big Harry Edwards, back from missing two games cos he was shopping, who rumbled over, both converted by Jeremy.

Further changes saw two more Colts make their debuts with Connor and Oscar coming on to replace Sam, who was clearly exhausted after his two yard run for his try and Jake, who was clearly feeling the effect of Fresh’s passes reaching him about the same time that Worthing entire back row arrived. Fortunately, no child protection officers were on hand, so Connor was thrown into the fray. Adam replaced big Tom Davis, who again had carried fantastically all afternoon, and carried on the good work.
To be fair to young Fresh, he scored a great scrum half’s try, twisting and turning from the base of a ruck, to dot down in the corner 29 -3.

Worthing’s scrum half then scored one for the visitors with a lovely run from the 10 metre line to bring the score to 29 -8. Further changes in the back row were planned but George clearly decided it was too cold to go back on – I hope Jon Don had a good word later?!!??!

Finally and with almost he last play of the game Flinny scored his customary try (yes we know it’s 16 for the season), executing a lovely switch with Fresh (or Fresh dropped it and Flinny caught it before it hit the ground). Jezza knocked over the extras and the final score read 36 – 8.
Overall a game which we grew into and deserved to win. The scrum was rock solid, the line out was fantastic all day, with PB and then Mr Voigt hitting their jumpers with clockwork precision, while all the back row constantly made ground with the ball in hand and snuffed out any Worthing threat before they could get going.

The backs also grew into the game, with Mike and Danny really starting to form a very effective partnership, while Jeremy at 15 kicked, tackled carried and ran superbly all afternoon and rightly earned the man of the match award. The Dick of the Day award was given to Fresh (harshly in my opinion) but who am I to argue with democracy?. Excellent to see 3 Colts get their first taste of senior rugby – the future is looking bright.

At Mr Cox’s insistence, the dress code for post game celebrations was “Lumberjack style”, which possibly tells us all we need to know about his proclivities and it was good to see around 14 or 15 of the squad still in the bar at 7.

Special thanks to the excellent crowd who turned up to support us. It would be great if as many of them as possible tried to come to the Final against Littlehampton.
This week, we are away at Horsham in the League. We have 6 league games left and I really don’t see why we shouldn’t be looking to win them all.

Squad:
Coxy, George H, PB, Marc Voight, TJ, Shaun R, Big Tom Davis, Harry E, Nigel M, Flinny, Russ W , Ben W, Adam C.
Frankie J, Jake E, Lee R, Mike R, Danny G, Sam M, JNY, Oscar H, Connor H, Fresh.