Following a withdrawal by Bank of England in the league, a friendly against Verulamians brought our season to a close. The opening skirmishes were evenly matched until they sought to release their winger on the outside. TJ tracked him and hit him hard to bundle him into touch. The lineout was secured by Lyle with the forwards driving well to set up good ball. It was spread into the backs for Dan at centre to find space and feed CJ. A strong hand-off was all that was needed to create space and power under the posts. 7-0.

It was soon level at 7-7 though. V’s attacked well and forced a scrum in OG’s 22. The pack drove hard to create pressure on their pack but the ball shot out on their side. They had set-up a training ground pattern which created space to run the score in.

OG’s put the pressure back on and Paolo turned the ball over in mid-field. The ball broke loose. Dan swept it up and charged through the broken defence to score. Deaf to the shouts of his support runners and the crowd, he opted not to make the kick any easier, despite BenM’s good effort! 12-7

V’s came back strongly again though to level the score for a second time in the match. They retained possession well in a number of phases before looking to have secured the try. BenM made a great try-saving tackle just short of our line but their forwards were in place quicker to pick and drive over from short. 12-12

From this point on, OG’s showed their strength and took the game away from the visitors. With the final action of the half, OG’s sent waves of attacks at the V’s line. Paolo went in on the crash ball from a penalty to make good ground but suffer a knock in the process. The ref stopped play for treatment and from the resulting attacking scrum, Kai picked up from no. 8 to attack on the blind side. Once their flanker had missed him, the winger didn’t look likely to succeed and he scored in the corner. A good attempt from the touchline by BenM drifted just wide and the ref brought the half to a close at 17-12.

The OG’s strength and depth took its toll on V’s in the second half. A solid attacking scrum fed BenM who took the ball into the heart of their defence. The ball was recycled to Jake who sent a perfectly weighted kick over the V’s defence. BenU chased and just beat the full-back to the ball, scoring as the covering tackle brought him down. 22-12

Kai was now revelling in the #8 position and picked from the back of a scrum on their 10m line. He powered past the winger and charged to the line, breaking another tackle. The full-back came across and flew into him in a valiant attempt to tackle him into touch, but Kai got the ball down in the corner. BenM made a superb conversion from the touchline. 29-12

The momentum grew in favour of OG’s and Mark saw a gap in the V’s defence, even though he only had one eye to look through at the time. He dragged a number of V’s defenders to the line before the OG forwards piled in behind him to drive over, only for him to be held up under the bodies of the defenders. But the scrum was now functioning well and Kai made his hattrick with another pick and go from the back. This time, they defended better and a number of V’s tried to stop him but he was too strong and just placed the ball on the line for the score. 34-12.

V’s never gave up though and rallied with a series of plays to gain ground up the pitch before a kick through was followed up well by the winger to score in the corner. 34-17.

The final score of the match came as OG’s pressured the kick receiver into a panic pass to no-one. The full-back turned and was relieved to see his own try line to ground the ball. But from the scrum, the ball came out to Jake who drove into the heart of their defence. Reece took it on off the ground and looked to be stopped short. But an arm reached out with the ball to just get it down. The conversion was the last action. 41-17

The team played well throughout and mixed the game up with attacks by forwards and backs throughout. Game management was solid too, and the penalty count low allowing us to gain territory even when under pressure close to our line. All contributed throughout the match. Now on to the tour.