Points and bodies left on the field

Hykeham came out of the blocks fast with Booth scoring in the opening minutes; although the score was left unconverted. The pack looked very dominant in the scrum leading to a lot of front-foot ball, which the half backs used well, with good interplay across the back-line. Although the gain-line was being broke repeatedly the Nottinghamians employed an effective scramble defense. The physical nature of the forward work in combination with the distance the backs were spinning the ball out to, often meant that the breakdowns on the near side were not able to benefit from forward beef fast enough, as the referee wanted the ball out and moving quickly. This often culminated in frustration as Hykeham were repeatedly employing great moves across the field but just not quite being able to finish off the scores. Given the attritional nature of the game, Hykeham shrewdly opted to kick the penalty before half time to go in 8-5 up. In games like this, points of any description are at a premium.

In the second half, the injuries were racking up and both teams needed to go to the bench, and after the benches were empty, to the well. Hykeham through a classic team move of forward play tying up the opponents, the subsequent slick interplay across the backs exploited the gaps opening in midfield, Self was able to step through traffic at speed, and had the wherewithal to touch down under the posts, which duly led to an easy conversion. This was the try that felt like it snagged the points for the win, but it only felt like the dying minutes as evidently there was much more to come. Hykeham looked like they were going to extend the lead as they were putting some tidy moves together. In fact, as I’m sure was regaled much more vividly in the bar after, there was head-scratching play on the wing on the far side with the Hykeham tighthead playing an inside pop to the hooker, only to have the balls to ask for it back to sweep around to play a loop pass, back out to the backs. He’ll be telling that story for many weeks.

In general, there were a lot of points left on the field today, but this is as much a nod to the hold-up tackling from the Nottinghamshire outfit as anything else. Their performance today belied their league standing, and if it was not for Hykeham being on form, and the aggression in the tackle and contesting rucks, they could have walked away with more points. While Hykeham’s front three were dogging it out and popping up the hooker at scrums for fun, the second and back rows were up in purple faces causing all kinds of trouble. Once again, Dan Farmer stood out, as he was demonstrating his Serengeti poacher trick of somehow making it look easy bringing down charging rhinos despite being outweighed many times over. Tackling fundamentals on show here.

As the game was passing through nautical to astronomical twilight, the team, although clearly exhausted and drained from the physical nature of the game, remained resolute to the end, dragging their carcasses desperately across the pitch trying to hold onto the win. With great chagrin, Hamians exploited the inevitable lapse in defence stemming from mental and physical fatigue of the home side, to jailbreak from midfield under the posts. This seems exactly the type of sucker-punch that can stimulate a resolute and rampaging attitude to the remaining games in the season. From the sidelines, the game was a tremendous spectacle and a highly entertaining watch.