OLD WHITGIFTIAN 45 VIGO 12

PAPA JOHN’S COMMUNITY RUGBY
COUNTIES 2 SOUTH SHIELD

This was a mess of a match, at times unedifying, with recriminations continuing long after the final whistle. Vigo just did not perform anywhere near expectations. In the words of head coach, Andy Forrester ‘’The better team beat a bunch of individuals’’, and the Old Boys were deserved winners.
The home side set off at pace, obviously more used to their weirdly contoured pitch, which slopes from end to end and side to side. Thus, Old Whitgiftian dominated the early stages both territorially and possession-wise. A couple of early penalties by Vigo allowed the home side to kick for touch, inside centre Jordan ‘the Pudding’ Lewis unerringly finding touch. The Old Boys obviously fancying their chances at a catch and drive as Lewis proved to be a more than capable place kicker. But Vigo held out against the first couple of attempts, and indeed took the first scrum against the head when the Old Boys fumbled a pass. Was that to be the harbinger of better things? Unfortunately not, although Vigo did go on to shade the honours in the tight. But Old Whitgiftian continued to press, as Vigo sought to find a rhythm. Right winger Daniel Lewis made a sharp break but a combination of Tony Whitehead and Lewis Pitchell drove the winger into touch a couple of metres out.
Whitgift began to gain parity in the next couple of scrums but gradually Vigo began to move back down field, a couple of thumping drives by Ben Moorhouse and Phil Sewell turning defence into attack, and now it was the Old Boys who began to give away a number of penalties. Eventually the referee, Tom Davies, who had an uncanny resemblance to Scottish legend Dan Biggar (‘’I wish I had his money’’ said Mr. Davies), lost patience and invited scrum half, George Meadows to the Naughty Step to contemplate the error of his ways. Vigo, with a man advantage, really should have punished the home team, but although they set up some meaty drives, they committed the cardinal sin of wasting their forward power with some injudicious and rather frenzied passing out of the tackle. Moorhouse and Sewell again made yards but all too often their back up players lost the ball in contact or tried a speculative pass to no-one in particular. If Andy Forrester had any hair he would have been tearing it out in frustration at Vigo’s profligacy. Needless to say, Old Whitgiftian punished Vigo’s lack of composure, stealing the ball, and moving the ball to left wing, Clem Li-Raphael, who weaved through a shocked Vigo defence before finally being nailed. But Whitgift recycled the ball and in a melee of bodies Luke Criscuolo touched the ball against the post protector. The referee, right on the spot, awarded the try, which Jordan Lewis converted. The score rather galvanised Vigo and a storming run by Jake French opened up the Old Boys. Excellent cover defence stopped French who fed Harry Lingham, who once again had a mighty match. Whitgift stopped him too, and managed to extract a penalty to allow them to escape, Lewis again showing his line kicking abilities. Vigo’s resurgence was short lived and again a superb run by Li-Raphael opened up Vigo all too easily, a superb run seeing the winger fly over on the stroke of half time.
Vigo had not had a bad half but had lacked the composure and Old Whitgiftian had certainly taken their chances. Vigo’s tried and trusted pick-and-drive had promised much but like a political manifesto had delivered little. Andy Forrester ran the changes, Harry Pattison coming on at 9, Will James replacing a limping Dan Norton. But it was the home side who struck within a minute of the restart. Winning a penalty, Whitgift tapped and fed Jordan Lewis who put a clever little grubber through. Vigo were slow to react and Nick Byrne swept onto the loose ball and over the line. Vigo began to get a tad grumpy with themselves, frustrated at not being able – or more accurately, not being allowed to find a rhythm by a committed home side. Their grumpiness only increased when the Old Boys struck again. Lewis had tried another grubber through, obviously playing on Vigo’s sluggishness in defence. This time, Pitchell got back before Old Whitgift but at the expense of a goal-line drop out. An athletic take by Meadows was followed by a pop pass to Charlie Petchey who simply ran through a supine Vigo defence to score a soft try, converted by Lewis.
At last, Vigo began to raise their game. Will James and Moorhouse, Rawlings and Sewell began to thump into the Old Boys defence, driving them back, protecting the ball much better. And it was Rawlings, who has had a pretty good season, who gained the reward for Vigo’s more composed approach, driving over the line under a welter of bodies, Tony Whitehead converting. If that was a signal to Vigo to make one of their famed Lazarus-like revivals, then their supporters were quickly disillusioned as a superb break by Charlie Petchey, who although appearing to run through treacle, as well as some powder-puff tackling, after about twenty metres, still had the wherewithal to find Li-Raphael for another excellent try. Again, Whitgift gave away a succession of penalties and hooker Chris Sills received a yellow for persistent infringement. By now, anarchy was beginning to reign as both sides took exception to the officiating. To be fair to Mr. Davies, there was a lot going on round the fringes, and off-the-ball, and when a dangerous spear tackle on Jack Tawney off-the-ball incensed Phil Sewell who exacted retribution with a right cross on the miscreant; Mr Davies had, quite rightly no option but to brandish a red card. Unfortunately, he had not seen the spear tackle otherwise there might well have been two cards, but one cannot condone punching. Although back in the old days fighting was regularly interrupted by some rugby, nowadays such skulduggery is rather frowned upon.
If Vigo had been facing an uphill task before, that had now become rather a mountain. Immediately Old Whitgift punished Vigo. Deciding that tackling was rather beneath them, they allowed David Moyise to rumble through for a ridiculously easy try. Moyise had actually put a decent shift in and this for fair reward for a hard-working performance. Lewis easily converted. Time was running out for Vigo, but a final frantic couple of minutes saw an explosion of action. Moorhouse smashed his way through for a thoroughly deserved try , Luke Henderson was yellow carded for taking Li-Raphael out in the air, and then Li-Raphael himself, whose training in martial arts had obviously inured him from falling awkwardly picked himself up and ran through a despondent Vigo defence to score. There was still time for another altercation as Lewis added the coup de grace with the conversion, Nick McPherson taking exception to some perceived sh**-housery. Thankfully the final whistle signalled a merciful end to a less than edifying spectacle.

Vigo team: J.Deeney; A.Fitzgerald, N.McPherson, J.French (capt.), L.Pitchell; T.Whitehead, N.Covill (rep: H.Pattison 40’); D.Norton (rep: W,James 40’), G.Rawlings, P.Sewell; J.Tawney, B.Howe (rep: K.Hall (40’; rep: MGregory 55’); H.Lingham, K.Hall (rep: L.Henderson 26’),B.Moorhouse.
Referee: Tom Davies (London)
Man of the Match: Old Whitgiftian’s Clem Li-Raphael, who not only scored three tries but also put in some spectacular tackles. For Vigo, once again harry Lingham took the Spectators’ Award.

Rob King (Whitgift Head Coach: A tough match for both sides. I thought Vigo’s big forwards were excellent but we held them well and took our chances well,taking advantage of some weak tackling away from Vigo’s forwards.

Andy Forrester (Vigo head coach): Vigo played with plenty of heart but little brain. We were a bunch of talented individuals beaten by a better team. All the stuff we worked on in training went out of the window. A disappointing end to the season.

MOG’s View: This was desperately disappointing. Although we were missing some big players, there were no excuses. We lacked composure in attack, and although the likes of Hall, Henderson and Lingham tackled brilliantly , there were too many gaps elsewhere and the home team took full advantage. Vigo allowed themselves to get rattled by some off-the-ball incidents but really could have no excuses. We wish Old whitgifts all the best of luck in the next round against local rivals Warlingham.