A dark day against a surprise package

What a tale of 2 halves. In the first half the game was lost and before long Egham Hollowegians were 29-0 down. A bunch of errors included an intercept try on the five metre line, failure to cover a kick downfield and a 60m dash down field which saw Old Haileyburians create a 5 on 1 overlap.

The home team's scrum was eaten alive, digested like a fiery vindaloo, and shat out again. There is nothing wrong with the size and strength of the pack, but it is clear that the Egham Hollowegians front 5 need to work on pushing as a unit.

At halftime, the challenge was set to win the second half. And the home team responded. The team started tackling and stopped making stupid mistakes. The ball didn't get given away as much and a sense of frustration and anger to batter the opposition kicked in, with their inside centre left concussed and a number of players flattened to the ground. Three tries were allowed to go begging: knock ons, poor support, and failure to give the pass early enough. And then a gem was scored as Oliver Fox finished from 50m, skinning at least three of their guys (with many in support behind him). Gordon knocked three over from a penalty and nearly got another three later on. Oh, and the scrums got better.

So what do we learn from this? First half could have been 10 nil to the opposition. Second should have been 15 nil to Egham Hollowegians.

What is need is: Discipline. Self-Belief. Calm in adversity. Belief in each other. Not a fear of losing but rather a fundamental atavistic drive to win.

Cary Depel,
Director of Rugby