Manor Battle Hard but go down to the League's Best Team

Aware of the need for good preparation against this good team an early meet time was called to allow us to travel and be ready without any foul ups. That was going well, right until we realised that the Spanish Fly was not in attendance. On any normal day we would have had no hesitation in leaving Mr Joliffe behind and looked forward to the abusive phone call that would soon have followed!

However we were a little lighter on numbers than I would have liked so wait we did. Expecting his pimp-mobile-Merc to come low riding into the car park we were a little taken aback when a battered old Peugeot came tearing through the gate at way more than the advertised 5mph and showed no sign of slowing down. Ralph wisely moved as the knackered brakes only just stopped the car before it went through the wall into the away dressing room and took out half the Ruislip team. Gone was the calm measured preparation we had wanted, but arrive up we did and we were ready for the off.

We spoke about the abilities of the opposition backs and their pace and agreed that tackling and supporting your mate next to you was likely to be the order of the day. Coops kicked off, Tim Landon collected and charged into contact. We recycled and again the forwards took it up. Slowly we gained ground, worked simple phases and we felt the opposition began to think that this might be a different game than they had been expecting. Through good kicking from penalties and disciplined tight running we worked our way into their 22 and even mauled to 5m out. "Look where we are" was the call and a period of very tight very close rugby was played as Manor dominated both possession and territory for the opening 15 minutes.

We had successfully kept the ball away from the Coopers backs but had crucially not translated this into points. We were turned over on their 22 as the energy of the forwards waned from the early going. First chance they got they spun the ball quickly, broke our line and sprinted over for the first score. Feeling harshly done by we went again but the above story repeated itself twice more in quick succession and Manor were 21-0 down having made most of the play and had most of the ball.

Ralph rallied the backs to tell them it was their turn to show what they could do and him and Reggie began to combine well, working with Waqqash, Saunders and Hey Adam to create openings. One of these found Ralph with the ball in his hands and half a yard of space and seasoned watchers of him won't be surprised to know it was soon 21-5..! That's 4 weeks in a row that a Norcaro brother has been on the score sheet for Manor 4s, great stuff guys!

From the kick off Manor knocked on and from the resulting scrum Coopers were away again to score their 4th of the half to leave the score at half time 28-5.

The second half started and continued much the same as the first. Manor were winning the scrummage battle and were not struggling at the breakdown. As soon as we made mistakes though we were immediately punished. Every time. The strain finally showed on Joliffe's hamstring (or maybe it was the late breaking earlier?) and he departed to make way for Manor new boy Chris Nastac. Chris had been training every week and had missed out cruelly through abandonment and opposition idiocy in the previous two games.

With the one sub we had being used the news was broken to Saunders that he would have to play the full game. His reply can't be published for legal reasons.

The game drew to a close with Coops having got 4 more tries and with the kicks added they led 52-5. We resolved to go for the last score of the game and happily it was Nastac who got it. We passed down the line to him on the left wing and he jinked his way past his marker to score on his debut! Well done Chris!

52-10 at the close then, but a really good committed team performance from the guys.

Playing to that level against most of the teams in this League will be enough to see us victorious. That's the fact to remember and use to spur us when we travel to Upminster on January 4th.

Well done to all the guys who've been involved in 2013 for Manor 4s - there's plenty more to come!