Last minute penalty snatches Law win

The Law Society 1st XV travelled to Old Blues RFC in the first fallow week of the six nations determined to get their season back on track and did so in recording their first win in 6 games.
The nail biting nature of the match can be summed up by the facts that the two sides were never more than 5 points adrift from each other and that the lead changed hands no less than ten times through the encounter.

The conditions were glorious at Dorney Fields as the Law Society took the kick off, this was well taken by the home side who set up a ruck and then went wide from first phase spreading the Law defence thin in the opening minute. A misread in defence on the far side saw an Old Blues back make a line break down the flank to go one on one with the full back, he put in a chip and chase at full tilt and managed to re-gather his and gallop over the line to score in the corner. A less than ideal start for the Law who looked a little shocked and could attribute this poor start to the poor preparation in the half an hour leading up to the game.

5-0

Blowing out the cobwebs the Law started to find a footing in the game as they pinned Old Blues back into their 22 with a scrum to the home side. The OBs retained their ball and sent a kick deep to full back Angus Simpson who caught the ball in his own half and sprinted into attack sensing some space out wide. The ball made its way to Law flier Louis Dall’Occo who gassed his opposite number on the outside but had work to do with 40 yards to go. Dall’Occo curved his run infield attempting to run right around the full back but was tackled by the last man on the five metre line, fortunately the observant and stationary Tom Brewer had only just moved on from the previous scrum and was nearby enough to track Dall’Occo’s run and receive an off load from the floor to lumber over the line to score a try under the posts.

5-7

The Old Blues responded well and were the next on the attack as their pacey (though not at pint drinking) winger ran towards the Law line looking for all money to be scoring a try. Dall’Occo soared into action once more as he tore back to make a last ditch tackle on the Old Blues man preventing a certain score. This break did give Old Blues the field position they needed to continue to beat down the law door however the law pack were resolute, defending solidly around the scrum and eventually turning over a five metre lineout, sadly the slightly botched clearance and catch lead to the Old Blues big right winger powering towards the tryline with the Law matadors this time missing every tackle to let him score.

10-7

The Law were to be next on the score sheet with a familiar score. The Law had built some good pressure from powerful running from both the backs and forwards. Once in the Old Blues half the backline were unleashed out wide and after some slick hands Dall’Occo broke down the right wing with searing speed however was brought down by the scramble defence metres from the try line. Skipper Rick Armstrong was not far behind having made a tremendous effort to get in support was on hand for the pass from the ruck to smash through the defence and canter closer to the posts for a score. Tom Maclean provided the conversion and the assist and this was how the scores finished at half time.

10-14

Following an impassioned speech about cutting out the errors and playing with cool heads the Law duly conceded a soft score from the opening play of the second half, the law tacklers only managing to pat the Old Blues runner on the back as he skipped through.

17-14

The Law went to their reliable bag of tricks to regain the lead. From a good position for a penalty Ben Campbell sent an ambitious but perfect kick to touch to allow the Law to dust off the anvil and from the ensuing maul were awarded a penalty try. Campbell had a notably faultless day kicking the ball from hand and gave the Law good territory throughout the afternoon, he also at one stage summoned his inner Brian Lima to put in a monstrous tackle on the Blues full back which was retrospectively and wrongly awarded as a penalty for making the ball carrier shit himself. Bad Luck Ben.

17-21

Old Blues RFC continued with their never say die attitude and pulled out another score to take the lead, the nature of which was somewhat non-memorable but nevertheless the seven points gave the Blues the edge.

24-21

The Law managed to re-gather their restart and after a few forward phases a mismatch of numbers appeared on the blind side. Maclean flippered it from the ruck to Brewer who spun it wide to Angus Simpson who raced in to score on the left hand touch line, encouraged by his team mates to dive and touch it down and not risk another Wimbledonian’s dead ball embarrassment.

24-26

The Law were leading as the tense affair reached the final minutes. Law Society errors allowed the Old Blues to make their way to the Law 22 and despite two successive lineout steals by the a Law jumpers the Old Blues still were on the attack when disaster struck, a penalty at the ruck straight in front of the posts on the 22. Old Blues slotted the kick to take the crucial lead with 90 seconds to go.

27-26

The Law Society kicked off but were unable to win the ball back and whilst they made tackle after tackle the Old Blues seemed determined to pick and go their way to victory by running the clock down. That is until a back got involved and riskily passed it to another back who oddly decided to run behind another back and thus give away a penalty for crossing. With the clock in the red and the penalty nearly 40 metres out, skipper Armstrong nodded to the posts and summoned for the tee. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, unfortunately the Law only had an aquatic, flightless, monochrome bird but nevertheless up he waddled as he placed the ball like a horizontal egg on the tee. The Law fans looked on in hope, fear and disbelief; one Jamie Simpson was quoted as saying “He hasn’t got the legs. I’ll eat my hat if he gets this”. Maclean steadied himself and a hush fell over the ground as he stepped up and struck the ball. It sailed through the air and over the bar and the referee’s whistle blew. The fans stormed the field to celebrate in a mass hug around the scrum half. Plenty of beer was spilt but perhaps not as much as the tears that fell from the home side’s faces; I guess that why they call it the Blues.

Full time. 27-29.

This victory broke the Law’s horrible losing streak and bounced them back up to 6th in the table. With a third of the season to go the Law are by no means safe from the drop zone but also can harbour genuine ambitions of a top 4 finish.