U13s Twickenham - Size isn’t everything

The first frosty morning of the year met the teams from Chess Valley and Twickenham. Chess Valley kicked off and again discovered that there is something in the water of Ricky, Croxley & Chorleywood that stunts the growth. The pack were again met by an opposition 8 that were man for man bigger than each of them. There was however good news for Jack & Matthew G who finally met an opposition player smaller than them!!

The Valley forwards immediately started applying pressure winning a series of Scrums and rucks however all too frequently the Chess ball carrier stayed on their feet in contact, the Chess forwards using superb technique drove the resulting maul forward, however the ball never emerged on either side and the resulting scrums were awarded to Twickenham. As in their last league game an opposition put in at the scrum didn’t end the Chess ambition and they were soon winning a series of scrums against the head.

It had all been Valley pressure thus far however Twickenham broke from their own 22, they charged up their left wing, there was just one player from Chess able to get back…the Hooker, Simon; a superb tackle drove the Twickenham winger into touch. Unfortunately Simon had taken a knock, however Simon has watched plenty of International rugby and knows exactly what to do. As he lay prostrate on the ground, Kevin our over qualified medic grabbed his first aid bag and raced across the pitch to the prone Simon. Lungs bursting Kevin arrived; at which point Simon, in the style of a top professional, stood up before Kevin could treat him and walked back to the rest of his team. Leaving Kevin in need of CPR & oxygen himself!!

Chess were soon back pressurising Twickenham, a charging run from Henry broke several tackles, Henry passed the ball to Luke and just a last ditch tackle took him into touch and saved the try. Twickenham were under pressure and resorted to a series of desperate kicks out of defence. Their full back was able to get plenty of distance on his kicks, however they were straight down Jacks throat and this just gave him plenty of space and a broken field to run at.

Eventually the first Chess try came; Jack took another Twickenham kick on the halfway line, moving to the right a jinking run broke several tackles, before Jack switched on his afterburners and shot down the right wing leaving the cover defence for dead. 5-0 to Chess.

Valley were now camped in the Twickenham half but unable to cross the line until the defence was finally breached by Alex, who ran hard and straight, broke several tackles and scored under the posts. Billy converted the try making the halftime score 12-0 to the Valley.

Ollie came on at halftime for Luke but this did nothing to effect the Chess dominance. However fairly soon the Chess players started to pick up knocks; Sam needed treatment but was able to stay on the pitch, but Tristan needed to come off after suffering a blow to the elbow, this gave newboy James his League debut. These knocks disrupted the Chess play and Twickenham were able to pull an unconverted try back.

This try gave Twickenham some confidence and they soon started giving their big right wing the ball at every opportunity, he had pace and size but we had Jack Trainor! Time and time again Jack threw himself at the Twickenham player’s legs, wrapping them up and bringing him down. Eventually this took its toll and Jack was forced off the pitch. This just gave us the opportunity to bring on our FGM-148 Javelin(Wiki it my hyperlinks won't work!!) (or Jake as he’s known to some), more of him later as initially Jake was just priming, cooling & calibrating his systems.

Chess continued soaking up the Twickenham attacks whilst occasionally moving into the Twickenham half, the Chess play paid off when they were awarded a penalty on the opposition 22 in front of the posts, as the Twickenham players wandered back expecting the kick for an easy 3 points Henry took a quick tap kick & ran over the line before a single Twickenham player had seen to move and reacted. Billy kicked the conversion and Chess were 19-5 ahead.

Twickenham kicked off determined to make a come back. It was at this point in the match that we discovered our joint referees for our next game; a loud shout went up from the side of the pitch, after too many years to mention watching Rugby, Anna & Alison had discovered that if the ball is kicked straight out the line out is taken where the ball was kicked from. I was going to start explaining that it would be different if the ball was kicked from inside the 22, but not if it was carried back into the 22……..or passed back etc. However I didn’t as even with this much knowledge they’re well ahead of last weeks ref who had problems even locating the touchline!!!

By now Alex was hobbling about the pitch having pulled his tendon, so it was time for our 4th replacement of the game and Liam came on at outside centre. Twickenham were now pressing hard and eventually scored an unconverted try, however worse was to follow, from the restart they ran the ball straight back and scored another, again this went unconverted. 19-15 & squeaky bottom time for the Chess fans & coaches.

The Valley boys obviously decided it was time to fire their weapon, as the Twickenham wing was charging down their left wing, Jakes infrared imaging system was switched on, he was aimed and from a safe distance released. At something approaching the speed of sound he skimmed horizontally across the ground at a height of about 18 inches, locked onto his target he hit the Twickenham winger with a mighty crack. Having largely forgotten to deploy his arms or move his head to the side before impact it was a scull on shin collision. Luckily for Jake his scull appears to be thicker than the Twickenham winger’s legs and whilst Jake wandered away the opposition player was carried off the pitch.

It was time for the Chess boys to take inspiration from Jakes foolhardy tackle, in the dying minutes they attacked the Twickenham line, held up just metres should each time. Finally one last attack from Sam B forced all of the cover defence in, as they tackled Sam on the line he spotted Jake alone just a couple of metres away. He passed the ball and Jake caught it, flopped over the line and Chess had won 24-15.

Jack was awarded man of the match for his great running & heroics in defence, FGM-148 snatched the second pint of Lemonade using his arms for only the second time in the day and with only Chess backs in the drinking contest it looked certain that the backs would finally notch their first victory on the Lemonade drinking scoreboard. However Twickenham awarded their MoM to a forward. Two Chess players to one from Twickenham, surely we couldn’t lose? Er yes we could as the Chess backs were beaten for a 5th time. More pints of Lemonade at home please mums; they need to practise!!!