I awoke to a frozen wonderland. Would the game be cancelled? Would Slough be able to raise a team? Players called in asking these very questions. The sky was clear and the ground was thawing. Game on!!!
Another hard day at the office beckoned. As meet time approached I still had only 14 players. Then Laurence declared himself unfit for battle. No amount of brides would get him to change his mind so I set off to the club with only 13 confirmed players. The front row was looking a little thin. Neil H, our regular prop, was still suffering from a broken spine, but would play when I offered him a run out at flanker!!! To our rescue came Mrs Caudle. Swiftly onto the phone she told her husband he was playing and to get himself over to the club ASAP. He duly appeared and played an important part in the performance of the team later in the day. So now we had 14 players and a front row. Ref turned up!!!!!! Still Slough had not turned up. However only 13 Abs players were present. We needed more bodies. Neil contacted a mate, James Spearman, who duly turned up. Claimed he hadn’t played for years and was unfit. Sounds like the ideal 2s player!!! Now we had 14. We could play with that number. Still no Slough. Then a call out of the blue. Did I need an 8 (name withheld for privacy reasons and will be known as 8)???? Oh yes. We had 15 players present and correct. Slough turned up!!!! Their captain came over and explained they had only 13 players. They were all huge units and clearly going to play a forwards game. Game on.
Kick off. Again their captain emphasizes they had only 13 players to our 15. We actually had two U17 players making their Seniors debut, so I did not initially feel it was so unbalanced. I asked the players if anyone wanted/would play for Slough. No hands when up. Game on. Slough were unimpressed. We would pay for this very soon…..
0-12. Slough scored two tries using their enormous pack. Surely we were not going to lose this game??? Ben rallied the troops. We thought it was going to be easy. We had numbers out in the backs but never got it out there. Finally the ball was released down the line and given to Aaron Lewis, one of the U17 players. Swift as a gazelle he sprinted to the far corner evading a desperate tackle and put the ball down to the left of the posts. Conversion missed. 5-12. Now we knew the formula to beat them, could we use it again? That would be far too easy.
The Slough pack was well drilled winning most of the lineout and scrum balls, but Abs were very competitive in the breakdown and anything lose. Whenever Abs got the ball they were dangerous. The back row repeatedly broke through with great runs from 8, Dan and Rob. Dale Cross, our other U17 player, descendant of a famous Abingdon player, Crossy, was having a good game despite the size of the opposition. His time would come!!! Eventually Abs scored again and started to take control of the game. The number 8 player scored a couple of tries from close range to edge Abs ahead. One was converted by the excellent (writers bias) full back. A few minor tweaks in the front row and Abs were suddenly competitive in the scrums. Game on!!!!
Slough scored another try to make it 34-17.
Abs scored two tries straight from the kick-off. Slough were now a defeated team. Great running by the back row again. Number 8 gets his hat trick .
Slough defending but unable to find touch. The ball is caught cleanly on the touch line by the still excellent Abs full back. He takes a few paces and spins the ball out to the eager Aaron in the middle of the field. Off he goes. The try line beckons. This would be his hat trick. Will he put the ball down at the 5m line? Would he run out of gas? Would he slip over? No need to worry. Pedal to the metal, he rounded the Slough winger and put the ball down in the far corner. That is how a winger should score!!!! Time was now running out. The Slough players were not even returning to the try line for conversions. Just enough time for some more Abs history to be made. Who would it be this time? Dale Cross picking up a loose ball and running through, being chased but having enough pace to put it under the posts. He then had the hour of converting his own try. The fabled Cross toe was used again, with the ball skimming over the bar. Job done – this place kicking is easy. Was there time for more points to Abs? Oh yes. Another try under the posts – I forget the scorer unfortunately (but I know it wasn’t the excellent Abs full back), but again the Cross toe was used to good effect – 9 points to the debutant!!! Finally Rob the flanker runs one in under the posts. Time is up and the kicking tee is worn out. Rob suggests he can do a drop kick. It was his try so he has a go. He can’t drop kick. The ball did get off the ground (unlike the legendry effort from Mark ‘utility forward’ Holland many moons ago) but went well wide. Never mind. The final whistle is blown. We have won 51-24.
Slough reminds us that things will be different in the return match. From a rocky start Abs finally started to gel as a team.
The day had started off with no prospects and ended on a high. The two U17 players had acquitted themselves very well with both scoring. Our replacement centre, James, turned out to be a very useful player, and as expected the celebrity number 8 was still useful. He would depart quickly after the game to avoid the paparazzi. Thanks for all who turned up. I know you all enjoyed yourselves. The next game is away at Wallingford. Their league position belies their strength. We need a good, full squad for that game. Please put rugby nearer the top of the list for Saturday!!! Waxing can wait until Monday....
Team
Ben, Jimmy, Mark, Dan, Rob, Neil, Dale, 8, Gavin, Kelvin, James, Mike, Gareth, Aaaron, Toby.
Abingdon only had 14 players available when we left the clubhouse for the short journy down the A34 to Newbury RFC. Unfortunately one player failed to turn up at Newbury, leavingnus with 13 players. A further 'complication' was that not only were Newbury III undefeated leaders of the league, having only let in 30 points the whole season, but we had a debutant U17 player at scrum half. How would he cope against such good opposition? We need not have worried on that score. Laurence Price had an excellent game providing Kelvin at 10 with good ball throughout the game, even when the scrum was going backwards. Furthermore he broke through their lines with a couple of snipping runs off the back of the scrum, keeping their drifting defence on their toes, and requiring good covering tackles from their backs. Another notable performance was from Rob Lockwood at lock. Ran all game, tackled back when all appeared lost, and generally got in their faces at every oportunity. Great game.
The game was played in the right spirit with Newbury 'lending' us a player to make it 14 each. Unfortunately they did not notice that we had only 14 so we started off 14 vs 15. After a couple of overlaps led to tries they realised they had an extra player and pulled their 15 off to make it 14 players each. Great sportsmanship. Their backs were well drilled providing excellent support for the ball carrier. Their forwards were BIG and good ball carriers. None-the-less, the Abs players never gave up, even when crossly outnumbered, and showed good spirit throughout. The score looks horrendous, but I beleive the Abs players thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We lost Mike Cyster early on with a knock to the knee, but I understnd he should be back for the next game. The pain was apparently only a 3 out of 10 so it can't have been that bad - jessie!!!
Anyway, we now look forward to a run of three games which should be competive, clearly helped if we can get at least 15 players out!!! They are against Slough (H), Wallingford (A) and Aylesbury (A)
So our next game is at home against Slough II on the 17th December. Slough are mid table and will surely give us a good game. Let's make sure we give them a good game also!!!
Toby
Once again the First XV called on Friday evening to take a couple of backs and a forward, and then a couple of players who confirmed didn’t turn up. I give my thanks again to the younger players who were on their mobiles to rustle up additional players when they saw that I was going to struggle to raise a full side, and in the event we had four subs to match Groves four.
Although this was a “friendly” there is never such a match between the two sides as there are many years of rivalry to live up to. Grove had come prepared to make amends for their recent heavy defeats against Abingdon’s Second XV and had a couple of First XV players “coming back from injury” and a couple of Second XV players who hadn’t gone on the stag weekend to Dublin.
The Abingdon starting team consisted of six or seven players who had played together before, but some of them were playing in positions that they weren’t used to – Martin Davies at scrum half and Jim Crossland at fly half to name but two.
We also welcomed some young players to the team, including 17 year olds Dan Cooke in his first competitive game, and Christian Miller returning to the club after spending ten years in the junior section before moving away for a bit. Other young players that had a run out were Richard Higgs, Frank Arris, and Adam Neil and Alex, (sorry didn’t get a surname) and new boy to the club Neil Hudson. All played well when they got on, even where they had to fill in to positions that they were not used to.
The referee managed to yellow card Tony Lewin, our prop, and just before he was due to return to the field he carded Everton Harris for dangerous rucking – although this later turned out to be a case of mistaken identity as we had two number six shirts on the pitch. The other was being worn by the guilty party – Martin Davies – who we all know is the spitting image of Everton!
The referee also yellow carded a Grove player at the same time as Everton’s card – but what was he thinking? This was a friendly that was being played in a remarkably restrained fashion as far as dirty play was concerned, (judged by the standard of previous meetings between the sides!), and he did not need to spoil the afternoon by being so officious.
The first half ended with Grove 3 points in the lead from a penalty scored after three minutes. The rest of the half was marked by some very good defensive play by both sides to keep out the flowing attacks and then by the card for our prop ten minutes from the end of the half. As we had no replacement front row the scrums had to be unopposed, which always spoils the contest for players and spectators alike.
Grove managed to score the first try of the game ten minutes into the second half, but they missed the conversion. Abingdon had an opportunity to reduce the gap when they were awarded a penalty three minutes later, but unfortunately Christian Miller was unable to convert the kick.
Play would then have flowed from end to end except for the efforts of the referee who was really failing to get into the spirit of the afternoon, and made some unexplainable decisions and awarded some mysterious penalties.
Grove finally scored their second try thirty minutes into the second half, but were again unable to convert the kick. This gave them a 13 – 0 lead, but two minutes from the end of normal time Sam Egan collected a ball on the right wing and, despite having taken a hard knock to his knee earlier in the game, he sprinted around the Grove wing and outpaced the covering full back to touch down for Abingdon’s one and only try of the afternoon. Christian Miller did not let his earlier failure upset his concentration and managed to slot the conversion for the extra two points.
Unfortunately, the referee appeared to have forgotten the pre-match agreement to only play thirty-five minutes each way and in the forty-second minute of the game Grove were awarded another penalty about twenty yards out in front of the Abingdon posts. At this point they were leading by only 6 points and if they missed the kick Abingdon would have the chance to score at the other end and a conversion would give them the lead.
We all watched with held breath, but the kick sailed between the posts and the referee’s whistle went for the end of play. Final score 7 – 16, but this was by no means a poor performance by the Abingdon side and once again everyone enjoyed their Saturday afternoon.
Thank you to all who turned out to play and watch.
Kelvin
The visitors were second in the league and had arrived with a spring in their step expecting an easy win but they were shocked to find that they were not going to romp into an early and unassailable lead.
In the first half Abingdon managed to score through Jim Crossland making his customary break down the left but new boy Christian Taylor was unable to convert.
The game was being run at a very fast pace and there was a danger of the Abingdon side running out of steam if the game was allowed to continue at such a rate. Aldermaston were worried enough by the Abingdon performance to decide to go for the posts when they were awarded a penalty, and their fly half duly converted for the three points. Shortly after they managed to follow this up with a try from their scrum half, and the fly half was again successful with the kick to take them further into the lead.
Everton Harris scored Abingdon’s second try before half time, but once again the conversion attempt was unsuccessful. Aldermaston responded by kicking another penalty, once again taken by their man of the match playing at fly half and he then scored an individual try and converted for the extra two points to give Aldermaston a lead of 20 – 10.
At half time Abingdon decided to concentrate on driving the ball forward through the forwards before releasing it for the backs to press forward the attacks. Several times the Abingdon side put pressure on the Aldermaston try line but their defence managed to hold firm through most of the second half.
As the last five minutes of the game arrived, Abingdon were still trailing but the frustration of having pressured for most of the second half, rather than demoralising the team, acted as a galvanising factor. A further drive towards the Aldermaston line that involved both backs and forwards supporting the player with the ball and rucking and mauling to a very high standard finally led to Abingdon’s third try of the afternoon. This was at the bottom of such a pile of Abingdon players that the person recording the scores for me put it down to “everybody”! I have since been assured that it was Alex Smith that had the final touch. Unfortunately, once again we were unsuccessful with the conversion attempt.
This left Abingdon trailing by five points with no more than two minutes left on the clock. That was all we needed. Aldermaston re-started and Abingdon managed to secure the ball and set up a ruck just outside their 22m line. From that the ball was picked up and shipped on the blind side to Christian Taylor who opened his legs and skinned the Aldermaston wing and the covering full back to score wide out on the right. This brought the scores even at 20 – 20, with just enough time for the conversion to be taken. It seems that Christian was thought to be too tired after his run to attempt the conversion, and kicking duties were passed to Levi Galodamu.
Both teams and both sets of spectators watched in silence as Levi booted the ball and then there was a loud cheer from all the Abingdon contingents as the ball sailed between the posts and the referee immediately blew for time.
This was one of the best performances from the Second XV for some time and the exhileration that we all felt at the end of the match is one that I certainly don’t want to wait too long before experiencing again.
It seems that one or two of the Aldermaston supporters did not appreciate their team losing and we were shocked to see verbal and physical attacks on their players outside the changing rooms. That just proved that some people have totally lost the spirit of rugby, as played at our level, and take things far too seriously. For the thirty or so players on the field, the important thing is that they took part in a very good game of rugby that was finely balanced to the end – and that is what a Saturday afternoon is for.
Thanks to all of the players and also to the supporters who came to watch. I am sure that you all enjoyed your Saturday afternoon as much as I did.
Kelvin.
This is the second time I have done this match report as the first one just lost itself in the ether! I really can't be bothered to do it all again at length so this will be short.
Harwell notified me on Thursday evening that they had 6 subs. At the time I had three, but by the time I had tried to contact a few more players plus those that turned up without notice on the Saturday I ended up with about ten - apologies to those who didn't get to play. It is as hard to pick a team with too many players as it is when there are not enough!
Harwell had a strong and experienced pack. Abingdon had a tremendous set of backs with a solid set of forwards.
Harwell scored 6 tries but only managed to convert 1.
Abingdon scored 10 tries and converted 6. First try was scored by Mattie Matavesi at outside centre, converted by Chris Stables. Second try was attributed to Jason Lowe at second row, again converted by Chris Stables. Third try went to Mark "Geordie" Wilson with a strong run down the left touchline, but the angle and distance was too great for Chris and he didn't manage to convert this one.
Chris then left the field and was replaced by Mattie Matateni who was late due to his satnav taking him to Didcot! Harwell had agreed that we could make the swap when he arrived without using one of the allowable subs - which they may have come to regret before the game was much further on.
Levi Galodamu then made a very strong run scything through the Harwell defence for his first try. Mattie Matateni took over the kicking duties and managed to convert. It wasn't long before Levi was again on the score sheet after yet another jinking run, but the conversion attempt was unsuccessful this time.
Mattie Matateni then ran in his first try of the day with a run that was every bit as good as those made by Levi. Mattie Matatesi had strained a leg muscle by this time and had decided to rest it so Chris Stables had come back on, this time at scrum half with Tim Darby moving out to his preferred position of centre. Chris took back the kicking duties and was successful with his first attempt, giving Abingdon a 38 point total.
The final try of the first half for Abingdon was scored after the ball was moved through several sets of hands, both forwards and backs, with one of the Fijians giving the final pass to Micky playing his first game in the front row and showing tremendous fitness and support play by being on his shoulder when needed a few yards short of the try line. Actually - I think the pass was given to him as a gift for being there! Good job he didn't fluff it! This try was converted by Josh Harwood who was determined to make sure that he got on the score sheet.
The second half was more difficult for Abingdon and the try count slowed a bit - the pace of the match in the first half had definitely taken its toll on some of us! The back row of Alex Smith and Mike Cyster was changed for Mo DeBoer and Jordache Moore. Martin Davies came on at front row and JJ Bouwer, usually a back row player came on the wing in place of Geordie who had also felt a twinge to a leg muscle.
The next Abingdon try was the second for Mattie Matateni after another strong run through the Harwell defence and Chris Stables again managed to succeed with the conversion. Abingdon's ninth try will stick in the memory of all who saw it for some time. The ball was whipped down the line towards JJ Bouwer on the left wing and from somewhere just outside the 22m line he loped down the wing and absolutely skinned te Harwell cover. It was like watching a slow motion replay it was so deceptive. JJ really did look like he was in another dimension the way he slipped past the defence. Unfortunately he touched down too for out for the attempt at the conversion to succeed. The tenth and final try was scored by Josh Harwood but again went unconverted.
Apologies to those who didn't get to play this week and thanks for your continuing support.
Kelvin
Well it seems that the Gods that look down on the trials and tribulations of the Abingdon Second XV captain enjoyed the Ealing Studios farce of last week decide to play a sequel this week. One week the boys from Dalton Barracks get you out of a hole and the next week they vanish into thin air. Despite having had confirmation from Jacko that he had enjoyed last week and wanted to play this week, and that he had confirmed another front row and one of the elusive Fijian centres that played at Didcot before Christmas, none of them turned up on the day - text received at 09.43 from Jacko, "cannot make today as have had to go to congested (sic) to sort family business. Hmmm, why no phone call in response to my earlier voice-mails? To compound matters, George Agara, who confirmed his availability last week and who has been a real strength for the last three weeks, must have lost his phone because despite several voice mails and texts - not a whisper in reply and also a no-show on the Saturday.
My phone was overheating from the number of texts and calls I received on Saturday morning from players with excuses with varying degrees of inventiveness giving reasons why they had to pull out. One had the virus that had struck me down two weeks previously, (10.34 - my sympathies to Mo), but then they got more bizarre. "I'm in Cirencester and someone has let the tyres down on my bike and I might be late", (received at 11.55 - no show). ""Neither me or Mandeep can make it today, we had to go to A & E after a party last night", (received 11.37). Phoned George immediately to be told that he had broken knuckles and Mandeep a broken jaw after gatecrashers turned up to a party at a mate's house and wrecked the place - broken TV, two police riot vans etc. - have to feel sorry for the parents who return from holiday on Thursday! Then rang Mandeep to be told he was not the one with the broken jaw but he had been in A & E with his mate and hadn't had much sleep so would be useless. As I told him, useless is better than not at all, and he agreed to go to bed and turn up by 2.00 as we needed him - many years of this job have honed the "won't accept no as an answer skills!". In the event he managed to persuade George to come and play too - and the knuckles didn't look half as bad as they had been described on the phone!
JJ had an infected knee and texted to say he would be along but would prefer to sub - readily agreed to as it is most important to get the bodies to the club before kick off. Text received at 11.05 - "Hi,did you say you had a lot of players today" - (I did on Thursday when I first made contact) - " as I have woken up feeling like s**t and am not in a fit state to play so would like not to have to if you have the players" - fat chance! And you played a stormer Moley! You certainly looked fine when you turned up, and I know you felt much better after the game, not least for not having been let off with a poor excuse. Age more like!
So there we are at meet time displaying total chaos and no idea how many players would actually turn up; all with new recruit to the club, James Allen - welcome James - looking on bemused. In the midst of this Eddie Cairns - he of the dodgy hip and knee so "bench or not at all" rang to see if he was needed and was gratefully recruited. As usual, the team rallied round and got on their mobiles to try to recruit additional players that they know, (why aren't these players already at the club?), including Frank who was having a hair cut. Josh Harwood drove off to fetch someone but returned without him - and also without Hannah's mobile, so off he went again - apparently it was in the road! No reply from Jordache, and several others were late, so by the time the ref arrived and Slough started to turn up I still had no idea how many players I would end up with.
Fortunately, Slough were quite late turning up, and they only had 15 players, so when my last recruits turned up at 2.15 and I found that I now had 17 including the injured George Law and JJ Bouwer I was feeling quite elated - although it could have been the onset of Hysteria! Once again very little time to introduce the players to each other - with only 5 the same as last week and at least two that I had never met before - welcome to Ollie Wright and Mandeep who both played very well.
Slough had beaten us earlier in the season by 92 points to nil and I was hoping that we would do much better this time. In the event, the Abingdon team once again played some very good periods of rugby, but suffered from the constant problem of not having a settled personnel. As the game went on the improvement was obvious as the players got to know more about each other's abilities, strengths and weaknesses. There were some outstanding performances, especially from Ollie and Mandeep, and the rest of the team played to their best.
It was a very fast start to the game and I for one was beginning to wonder how we could slow it down. The Slough pack was stronger in the loose than we were and their backs defence was also very strong ( somewhat helped by the referee failing to penalise their back row for being constantly offside). Not having anyone on the sidelines to concentrate on recording the scores this week, (both subs ended up running touch), I have no idea what order the tries occurred.
For Abingdon, in the first half the much lauded wing Jim Crossland scored Abingdon’s first try of the day with an interception and 65 meter finish and Eddie Cairns managed to convert. Unfortunately Slough had by then scored two tries, converting just one of them. Abingdon's second try was scored by new boy Ollie Wright after a strong break near to the touchline, but this proved too far out for Eddie to take the additional 2 points for the conversion. After about 25 minutes Ollie had to go off due to a bloodied nose, (welcome to senior rugby!), and the injured George Law came on as a blood sub. In consideration of his broken knuckles we shuffled the pack and moved the veteran Martin Davies to front row, Josh Harwood to flanker and let George lean on at No.8 - which actually worked quite well against the four man mountains that Slough had brought with them. However, Slough managed to score one more converted try before half time to give them a lead of 19 -12 at the break.
Eddie had by now been defeated by age and had to leave the pitch and Ollie returned to the fray having staunched the flow of blood. JJ now joined the back row and Barry Hughes moved to full back, where he had earlier admitted to having played once or twice! He didn't last much longer before his calf stopped him running and he also had to leave the field, which led to yet another change in the positions as we were now short of a back and only had George Law available on the touchline. James Allen agreed to move from outside centre to full back, Josh moved from back row to outside centre and George was back at No.8.
Surprisingly, the changes didn't have an immediate detrimental effect on the Abingdon performance, and Martin Davies managed to score after a determined period of play from the Abingdon team.. The kicking duties wee taken over by Josh Harwood in the absence of Eddie and he managed to convert for the extra two points, bringing us up to 19 points - but I think Slough must have scores a couple more tries by then as we were never drawing.
Unfortunately, the Slough team started to pull the Abingdon defence first one way and then the other, and the make shift nature of the defensive line was never going to hold up under the onslaught. I know one try was scored from a penalty awarded for offside about 10m from our line because I was the unlucky player who attempted to stop one of the Slough 20 stone forwards from barging through. needless to say it was a total mismatch and if I had been unlucky enough to end up beneath him they would probably still be scraping my remains from the pitch! The other tries came from the Slough creation of two or even three man overlaps as the Abingdon defence became very tired and just could not cover all the gaps.
Just before the end Ollie Wright managed to score his second try of the day, but Josh failed to convert for the extra two points. At least we had the bonus point for scoring four tries. In the end, even though we lost, the score of 24 - 41 was very respectable. The game was hard but played in a good spirit throughout (bar Eddie's little spat over the showboating of a Slough try scorer who must have watched the video of Ashton's England tries several times over!) - and the Abingdon players gave a very good account of themselves.
One final note before the usual thanks, - and this is addressed to all the players from last Saturday and all the others who have turned out for me this season - please remember that it is difficult to play in a team that is more than likely thrown together at the last moment, with many changes from the week before both in personnel and positions. That does not excuse players falling out with each other over decisions that I make as captain, both on and off - but especially on - the pitch, whether regarding tactics, player's positions or the passages of play. If you don't agree with what I am doing, or have a suggestion about someone else's performance, please have a quiet word with me during a break in the play. remember, open disagreement can only give encouragement to the opposition - so cut it out for the rest of the season.
The thanks as always go to all who turned up, but especially this week to the injured George Law, JJ Bouwer and Eddie Cairns, the aging Moley and to Mandeep - if that was useless I am looking forward to seeing your good performance! Thanks to those who were on their phones after meet time trying to conjure players from thin air, and thanksto all the team for putting your all into the game.
No game next week, so we can recover from the small and large niggles that many of us have been carrying for weeks and settle back and enjoy the internationals.
Kelvin.
Getting a Second XV out this week was like being in an old Ealing Studios farce. The First XV took a couple of players on the Friday and that left us with no front row. Dalton Barracks came to the rescue with two props/hookers, thanks to Gareth "Moggie" Morgan and Dave "Jacko" Jackson, but we were still a man down for the front row. Thanks to Mo and JJ for managing to persuade Tony Lewin to help us out. When they phoned him he was in Thame, had to drop someone off in Eynsham, and then get to Reading for a 2.15 KO - I had my doubts that he would make it as it was already gone 1.00, but at least it meant we would have 14 players and a front row. Then it turned out he had no boots, (size 12!), nor socks or shorts!. Mo and JJ went to buy him some and by the time they returned to the club the rest of us had left - well it was almost 1.30! Strangely, I was the last to leave Abingdon by a good 10 minutes, yet managed to get to Reading first - the advantages of knowing the back roads and having played there many times over the last forty years!
The referee and opposition were quite understanding at first - probably glad that we had turned up at all - but when we still only had 11 players by 2.20 the ref was beginning to get a bit officious and threatening to call the game off. I've always thought that bad rules should be broken without hesitation and told him it was better to play late than not at all. That quietened him for a while! Having rung the missing Mo and JJ at 2.25 and being told that they were drawing into the "parking lot", (South Afrikaans?), I told the ref that we would be ready to start soon and he relented somewhat. However, ten minutes later there was no sign of the missing 3 so I rang again - turns out they were in the wrong car park! They were at the school ground. For those of you who know the area that is easily done, as within less than half a mile along that road there are at least three club sports grounds plus the school. The fact that Reading Rugby Club is clearly sign posted has never made any difference!
With the addition of the loan of a winger from Reading we were finally ready for kick off at 3.00. The team played far better than the result reflects. In the end Reading ran in 11 tries and converted only 4 so we were lucky they didn't have a kicker in the team. What they did have was a mixture of old hands and up and coming youngsters who obviously trained together and had a number of useful moves worked out in the backs that managed to break the Abingdon defence time and again. To be fair to Abingdon, there were a number of players in unusual positions, including George Agara at inside centre instead of on the wing, and Mike Cardin playing only his fifth game or so at outside centre. Besides which, many of the side were total strangers as there had hardly been time to introduce them before the kick off!
For long periods of the game Abingdon held strong and at times played some very good rugby - the Reading players all said that it had not been as easy as the score line appears to show. Once again thanks to everyone who turned out, and to those who made the effort at meet time to drum up extra players. Even though we lost, we all did our best under the circumstances and it seems that everyone had enjoyed their Saturday afternoon rugby again, even though we did lose at least we had honoured the fixture. It would have been easier to call off but where would be the satisfaction in that?
Thanks to all who turned out and to those who once again helped to get a team out at the last minute.
Kelvin
This season it seems harder than ever to get a team together for an away match and this proved to be the case once again for the Second XV trip to Hungerford this week. I just managed to scrape together 15 players and as usual there were several changes from last week, and several positional changes also. Thanks to those players who volunteered to play in positions that they weren't used to.
As it turned out we gave Hungerford a very hard game and we were unfortunate not to end the day as winners. The first try came after only 5 minutes. There was a set scrum about 15m from the Abingdon try line which we managed to win and the adventurous backs moved the ball quickly along the line to the winger George Agara, recently returned from leave in Kenya. George then showed his speed and skill by avoiding several of the Hungerford players and running all of 70m to touch down. Mark "Jew" Roberts, who was filling in at fly-half this week, managed to convert the kick to give Abingdon a 7 - 0 lead.
The game was exciting to watch, with both sides making inroads to the opposition 22 but both defences held steady. Hungerford were awarded a large number of penalties due to the Abingdon indiscipline around the rucks and mauls, but were unable to convert any attempts at goal. The strong wind definitely played its part to help Abingdon.
Just on 15 minutes, the Hungerford pressure paid dividendes and they scored and converted their first try to even the points. The Abingdon players reacted well to this setback, and from the kick off they secured the ball and drove towards the Hungerford defence. Josh Harwood suddenly made a break from the back of a maul and, having avoided the first line of the Hungerford defence, he sprinted towards the Hungerford try line before being stopped just short of the line. Fortunately, Jordache Moore was in close support, in his first game back after his break in Zimbabwe, and he gathered the ball and powered over from close quarters on 18 minutes into the half. Unfortunately, Jew was unable to make the conversion but Abingdon still led 12 - 7.
This wasn't to last though, as within 4 minutes Hungerford had scored their second try, and had more luck with the conversion, putting them into the lead by 2 points. The half continued with the sides evenly matched and both sides failing to benefit from the pressure they placed on the opposition line. After 34 minutes Hungerford were awarded another penalty and decided to attempt to increase their lead, but the kick went wide. It didn't take much longer for them to succeed in increasing the lead as they scored their third try on 38 minutes when their forwards forced their way over from a 5m scrum, which was also successfully converted to give Hungerford the lead at half time by 21 - 12.
The second half really belonged to Abingdon. They managed to cut the penalty count to almost none against them in the second half, and they were awarded several as the Hungerford pack started to get frustrated at not being able to continue with their first half successes. For most of the day the Abingdon pack found themselves being pushed back at the set scrums and this created difficulties for Howard Davies, playing at scrum half for the first time in close to thirty years. It isn't known how many times Howard played in this position during his school days, but there is a suspicion that it wasn't many! Jew spent much of the afternoon watching the ball bounce along the ground towards him - so much so that Howard was christened "Barnes Wallis" by his less sympathetic team mates.
The second half was exciting to watch, with the sides being finely balanced - Hungerford's stronger pack running into the resistance of the Abingdon backs superb defence, with notable tackles being made by Howard, Jew, George and Eddie Cairns, returning to his old position of full back. The only score of the second half fell to Abingdon on 63 minutes into the match. Hungerford were pressuring well within the Abingdon 22m area when Josh Harwood managed to intercept a pass and set off on what turned out to be a sprint too far for his leaden legs. He almost made it to the Hungerford try line but after around 80m his legs started to give way and he was caught by the chasing Hungerford defence. The supporting players managed to secure the ball and after some scrappy play where the chance almost went begging, Mike Cardin managed to score the try wide out on the right. Unfortunately, with the strong wind still blowing, Jew was again unable to convert the kick. Abingdon now trailed by 21 - 17.
Abingdon again managed to put tremendous pressure on the Hungerford try line for the final ten minutes of the match. They were awarded three or four penalties within possible kicking distance, but knowing that a try would put them into the lead they chose to take a series of quick penalties in a brave attempt to win the game. Unfortunately, having come close enough to send the ball down the backs line to make use of the two man overlap they had created by drawing in the defence, the lack of a strong, experienced half back combination, combined with the white line fever that seemed to infect everyone who laid their hands on the ball, topped off by the strength of the Hungerford pack's defence meant that they didn't score those vital points. Eventually, the ball was turned over and Hungerford kicked long to touch to clear their lines.
On the final whistle, the disappointment was evident on the faces of the losing Abingdon side. It seemed that they knew they had thrown away a winning opportunity by forgetting that rugby is a team game, and some of them wanting the glory of scoring the winning try more than the pleasure of the team win. Hopefully they will have learnt the lesson the hard way, by having lost a match that they could have won if they had remembered to play as a team!
Thanks once more to all who turned out this week, especially those that played in positions that they were not used to. Special thanks to Jason "Bison" White who dropped down from the First XV at short notice due to so many other players not being able to play away. Without Bison we would have only had 14 players this week. Making him captain for the day was partly to thank him for helping us out, but also served to give him a valid reason for questioning the referee's decisions. Even so, at one point I thought he had even taken that too far and believe the referee was quite close to yellow carding him!
We did manage to get our first bonus point for being within 7 points of the winning score, but this did not offset the disappointment of losing what was in effect a "10 pointer" with Hungerford now being 8 points above us in the league instead of Abingdon being ahead.
Kelvin
The Second XV were given the privilege this week of playing on our new floodlit pitch adjacent to the clubhouse as this was the least frozen of the four available - must be down to the new drainage! This pitch is full sized and considerably larger than the usual second or third pitches that the team are used to playing on, and the lead that appeared in the legs of some of the players towards the end showed how unfit some of them are!
The Second XV benefited this week from the fact that there was no First XV fixture so I did not lose half of the regular team to play for them due to injuries or unavailability. Despite being laid low all week with a virus and not knowing until Saturday lunchtime exactly which players would be turning up to play, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of Second XV regulars who made themselves available, and with a couple of First XV regulars in the team we were even able to lend Grove a player as their fly half didn't make an appearance.
Within two minutes of the start Abingdon scored their first try with home regular Jim Crossland running in his first of the day. Jesse Mortimer failed to convert, with his kick into the brisk wind stalling short of the posts. Five minutes later Jim crossed the try line again for his second of the day. This time he placed the ball between the posts, which enabled Jesse to succeed with his second conversion attempt, giving Abingdon a 12 - 0 lead.
It seemed at this stage that Abingdon would run away with the game, but unfortunately the team started to lose their concentration and the flow of the game suffered from giving away penalty after penalty for infringements in and around the rucks at each breakdown. The defence held steady under some sustained pressure from the Grove side and they managed to prevent Grove from benefiting from the large number of quick penalties that they took.
It wasn't until the thirtieth minute that Abingdon managed to score again. Josh Harwood made a strong run out of the home twenty two after securing the ball from a line out and the support was there when he needed it, eventually leading to a try for Mo DeBoer. Unfortunately, the wind again proved too strong for Jesse to convert the attempt. Within five minutes of Grove restarting the game, the Abingdon side strung together a series of passes through someone being there to support the player with the ball at the right moment, eventually leading to Rob Tyreman's first try far out on the left. James Webb took over the kicking duties for this attempt, but once again the wind proved to be too strong.
At the half time whistle, Abingdon turned round with a commanding 22 - 0 lead, and the prospect of playing with the wind in the second half.
Grove looked like a different team from the restart, obviously having taken full notice of their half time talk. They changed their tactics and attempted to keep the ball tight in and made some strong drives up the pitch through their front eight. Abingdon looked as though they were in danger of falling apart under this renewed vigour for the first few minutes of the half. Fortunately they had listened to my half time talk and started to find that the penalties were now being awarded in their favour. After eight minutes of the half a quick penalty was taken just outside the Grove 22 and Pablo Pepiol made a darting, twisting run for the line ending with him scoring near the posts. James Webb, now with the benefit of the wind behind him, managed to convert for the extra two points.
Within two minutes of the restart Simon North made a strorming run out of the home half, and once again the good support play eventually enabled Rob Tyreman to score his second try of the day. James Webb was once again successful with the conversion.
Finally, the Abingdon team seemed to have rediscovered their concentration and from now on the tries came every few minutes. Grove continued to do their best to stop the onslaught but with no luck. Simon North scored fifteen minutes into the half, and after some discussion with James which unfortunately took place on the far side of the field so could not be overheard, the spectators were surprised to see Simon preparing to attempt to convert his own try. They were even more surprised when he was successful!
After 20 minutes Liam Cook ran in a try, which James, returning to kicking duty failed to convert. After only another four minutes of play Alex Smith, who had actually played for Grove in the first half, managed to touch down at the bottom of a pile of players. This try was much closer to the posts and James once again succeeded with the conversion attempt.
The next try was scored by Rob Tyreman after just another three minutes, but it was almost the try that never was! He made a break from deep in the Abingdon half and set off on a diagonal route across the pitch. The supporters were all screaming at him to head for the corner as the Grove defence was covering across the pitch with some speed, but it was obvious that he hadn't run this far before in his life and the lead was collecting rapidly in his legs! Who knows what it was that finally enabled him to cross the line far out, but score he did - though he was still flat out trying to regain his breath after the conversion attempt had been missed by James! At least it shut him up for a while!
Just another three minutes later, which was all the time it took Grove to restart the game, Abingdon scored again with Rhys Watham finally being rewarded for his hard work at scrum half with a try of his own. Josh Harwood decided that he was going to take the kick and managed to slot it between the posts.
The referee put the result down as 72 - 0 which means that Abingdon apparently scored another unconverted try - but I seem to have missed this one! If any of the players know who scored it, let me know and I will credit it next week. Unfortunately, the referee also took it upon himself to feel sorry for the Grove side and decided to blow the final whistle ten minutes early. This was not appreciated by me as we needed to score as many points as we could to reduce the negative points difference that we currently have in the league. It will be a shame if this causes us to lose a place in the league at the end of the season, and certainly is not expected in a league fixture. A disappointing finish to an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable match for all Abingdon players and supporters.
I took the opportunity at the end of the game to remind the Abingdon players that rugby is a team game, because they had lost their shape towards the end of the match with everyone wanting to get their name on the score sheet, rather than using the supporting players alongside them. Try scoring opportunities were missed through loss of the team spirit. Let's not let this happen again guys.
Thanks to all who turned out, especially Alex Smith and Simon Bryant who volunteered to play a half each for Grove. See you all next week.
Kelvin.
A bit of a luxury this week with ten of last week's team available, but positional changes still had to be made and some players had to fill positions that wouldn't be their first choice. John Wiblin made another appearance and seems to be loving his rugby again although it seems he would welcome the return of Kit Smith to allow him to return to the subs bench for at least half the match! No such luck this week as Kit was away - but watch this space!
This week we welcomed another first team to Abingdon in the form of Berkshire Shire Hall, who are romping away at the top of the league having been relegated last season, and it was recognised that this would be a hard game to win. It didn't make it any easier that that the junior section had marked out their two playing areas across the width of the third pitch and that their lines were not where the full size pitch's lines were required. Thanks to the few who turned out early to mark up the two pitches required due to the usual first and second team pitches being unplayable due to standing water on the playing area.
Shire Hall won the toss and elected to play with the strong wind. It was clear that they expected to run away with the game and were surprised by the determination of the Abingdon defence, which was worked especially hard throughout the match due in part to the fact that the Shire Hall pack was superior in the set scrums and won many of the line outs. Shire Hall had a number of very strong runners that tested the Abingdon defence time and time again, but the line held firm for most of the first half. Eventually the pressure told, and where the Abingdon defence had been drawn in, a couple of quick changes of direction and movement of the ball quickly across the Shire Hall back line made good use of their overlap and two tries were scored. They only managed to convert one of these.
A few niggles started to occur where the Shire Hall players were beginning to get frustrated at not running away with the game and disappointingly one or two of the Abingdon players started to react and lose the normal good discipline. Eventually the referee had to warn the two captains that any further offence would lead to a yellow card and unfortunately it was an Abingdon player, Mo DeBoer who made the next silly reaction to a little niggle and found himself being made an example of six minutes before the half time whistle. Shire Hall were unable to take advantage of their superior numbers due to some heroic defence from the Abingdon players and we turned round at half time only 12 - 0 down and with a sense that we were as good as the opposition and had a good chance to cause a major upset.
The Shire Hall runners continued to make inroads into the Abingdon half and eventually the older Abingdon players started to tire and found themselves unable to recover quick enough to cover the full width of the pitch after being drawn into defence on one side and then finding the ball whipped quickly down the Shire Hall backs line to make use of their overlap wide out on the other side of the pitch. However, Abingdon stuck to their task admirably with everyone in the team putting full effort right up to the final whistle and limiting Shire Hall to only three tries in the second half, one of which was forced over from a five meter scrum and none of which were converted. A number of quickly taken penalties and some tremendous pressure and running from the Abingdon forwards led to Jason Lowe powering over for Abingdon's only try of the game, but it proved to be a little too far out for Eddie Cairns to make the conversion.
Although we lost the match 27 - 5 the team had performed extremely well in phases and everyone should be proud of the scare that we gave Shire Hall. They really did know that they had been in a game and were surprised that it proved so hard for them to secure the win. It shouldn't be forgotten that in the days before leagues this would have been a difficult fixture for our first team!
Thanks again to all who turned out. I hope you enjoyed the game and managed to take encouragement from the improvement in our performances in 2011. I certainly did, and it makes the hard work from all the helpers that goes into making the day run smoothly seem worthwhile. Just one downer on the day - we lost yet another shirt from the playing kit and I would ask all who played to check their bags to see if they accidentally took one home. If so, just wash it and bring it back next week.
Thanks also to ex-Abingdon player Anton Lavers for stepping into the breach at very short notice - actually on the train back from London at 1pm! - and agreeing to referee the game. Without Anton the Saturday afternoon of more than 35 players would have been ruined as we would not have been able to play. Thanks from us all to Anton.
One final note - there are a few photos of the match on the Shire Hall website, www.shirehallrugby.co.uk and click on "photo gallery" on the right hand side. Check out the fine example of a player in picture 15!
Kelvin
Abingdon IIs travelled away to Kingsclere this week. Once again a real struggle to get a side out with eight changes from the team that so comprehensively beat Wallingford last week. John Wiblin was welcomed back for his first full game since "retiring" at the end of last season - although he was overheard to say that he was getting BT round on the Monday to disconnect his phone! Of the seven from last week there were a few positional changes too, including the return of Alex "Coops" Cooper to his preferred position of scrum half. so I was not expecting too much against the second team in the league.
We won the toss and chose to play with the wind in the first half in hope of stretching out a lead by half time. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out as planned. Despite managing to gell as a team in record time Abingdon were unable to take advantage of the wind due to the very well drilled defence of the Kingsclere team. We were awarded two penalties within kicking distance but Jesse Mortimer was unable to convert either kick, coming very close with the second attempt that actually bounced back off the right post. Kingsclere managed to scramble the ball away from the Abingdon players that had followed up on the kick as they were the beneficiaries of a lucky bounce that took the ball away from the Abingdon players.
The better drilled Kingsclere team - only to be expected from a club with only one side who train together regularly - put together a string of attacks on the Abingdon line, but the Abingdon defence held strong and repelled each foray into their own 22m area. To the casual observer, including many of the Kingsclere supporters, it was not evident that the Abingdon side had not been playing together as a team before today. The effort from each player was impressive, but in the end the pressure told and Kingsclere managed to force over a try which they managed to convert just before half time to give them a 7 - 0 lead.
Unfortunately, Kingsclere made some changes to their forwards at half-time and the Abingdon pack started to struggle. Abingdon brought on their only sub. - the venerable Neil Cadman - but the very heavy going underfoot combined with the strong wind in our faces and the fresh players on the Kingsclere team soon started to take their toll on the older Abingdon players.
However, this wasn't until after we kicked off for the second half and allowed Kingsclere to gather the ball unopposed and then procede to run right through the middle of the Abingdon pack without a single tackle being attempted. This resulted in Kingsclere's second try and a gentle reminder from Abingdon captain, Kelvin Sykes, that he did not wish to witness a repeat of this schoolboy type error. To be fair to the team, they took this on board and renewed their efforts in defence for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, Kingsclere made full use of their five replacements and the injection of fresh legs paid dividends each time as they ran in a further four tries in the second half. Fortunately their kicker was only able to convert two of the five second half tries and this was due in part to the Abingdon defence forcing Kingsclere to score their tries wide enough out to make the conversions difficult.
Abingdon stuck to their task for the whole game and many of the Kingsclere players and supporters commented on how well we had performed and how difficult we had made it for them. All the players involved should take heart from this and, even though we lost, it should be remembered that we are a second team playing against first teams, some of which would give our own first team a hard game.
It would be nice to be able to field the same players from week to week, but I would like to thank all who answer my pleas for help and enable me to keep up the record of never failing to get a team out on a Saturday. There is a great team spirit in the IIs and the willingness of players to put themselves forward to fill positions they haven't tried before is much appreciated. Man of the match again this week was Levi Galodamu, playing at inside centre, but Mike Cyster is beginning to show himself as an excellent flanker - possibly due to all those weeks at outside centre observing what wasn't going well close in to the pack!
Thanks again to all who turned up and played their hearts out on the day.
Kelvin
Happy New Year to you all.
Well, the new year continued as the old one had ended with the usual struggle to get a Second XV out on the day. On Friday evening there were 10 confirmed players and after a couple of desperate hours phoning and texting that had risen to 16, including Jim Crossland suffering badly with the after effects of flu and only available as a sub, and two who were not sure if they would finish work in time! Very depressing, and matters did not improve when Mo DeBoer dropped out on the morning of the match with a bad dose of the runs. James Webb raised my spirits on Saturday morning when he finally responded to my messages and confirmed he was available, but as the meet time came and went with no sign of the workers it appeared that we would have to start with only fourteen players, including the flu invalid!
Once again, the benefit of having welcomed the Fijians so warmly at the Didcot fixture in December became evident. The two who had made themselves available for all the postponed games and hadn't had the benefit of Christmas leave back in the warmth of the South Pacific got on their phones and contacted a couple more of their countrymen who were also stuck in England. Thanks to Stevie Ratu and Levi Galodamu and the two compatriots who were persuded to make up the numbers, Tim Uludole and Israel Vola - without your help I am sure we would have suffered a crushing defeat.
The pitches were only slightly waterlogged and this was dealt with thanks to the efforts of Jesse Mortimer and Richard Strange armed with a couple of stiff brooms, so successfully that neither the opposition nor the referee even mentioned the possibility of the game being called off. (As an aside, it was interesting to note that the pitch with the most standing water was the new floodlit pitch that is supposed to have state of the art drainage! Hmmm.)
The next problem to be faced before kick off was who would play where, with only 6 forwards in the squad. Mike Cyster and Barry Hughes made the elementary error of admitting that they had both played back row (once each I think it was). Thanks to them for agreeing to give it a go, and to Alex Smith who moved up into the second row hole left by Mo's attachment to the nearest lavatory! Chris Belcher looked rather bemused by the seven strangers around him on his return to the Second XV and matters looked more desperate as the line out practice and calls were being sorted as the toss was occurring! The team spirit that attaches to the Second XV was further in evidence when Jesse Mortimer volunteered to play at full back, Frazer McCairns agreed to play on the wing, John Wiblin returned from retirement to volunteer his services as front row sub, and Tim Darby appeared from work with his kit to give me the luxury of a second backs sub besides the flu invalid, Jim. I was returning for my first game since destroying my hamstring at Slough on 30th October so didn't expect to be able to contribute much myself.
The very brief pre-match team talk consisted of introducing the majority of the team that did not know each other, making sure everyone knew the position they had been allocated, informing the non-Fijians what the Fijian word for "pass" is, and telling everyone to enjoy the game, to keep things simple, not to worry when the inevitable mistakes were made, and that we had a chance of winning the game. Looking around the circle of bemused faces I could sense that they all thought I was mad!
As it turned out there was some magic in the air and the team gelled immediately. The inexperienced back row performed admirably, possibly due to having been in the backs all season and seeing where things had not been going quite as well as they should with the defence, and for most of the match the team followed the team plan and kept the ball away from the experienced Wallingford pack. The few supporters who made the effort to come down and support the Second XV were treated to a very good display of teamwork and attacking, running rugby.
The forwards, despite being under pressure from a heavier Wallingford pack, managed to secure enough ball for Tim Uludole at No. 8 and Israel Vola at 9 to feed me good ball at fly half and I made good use of the skills of Levi Galodamu at inside centre. The rest of the team remembered my pre-match exhortations not to stand and admire the skills of our Fijian team mates and some excellent moves through the backs with support from the forwards at the breakdown led to try after try being scored. I lost count during the match and thank Andy Abbey for keeping a running tally from the touchline.
Wallingford won the toss and chose to play into the sun and with the wind, but failed to take full benefit of the conditions. There is some confusion over the exact score at half time but Abingdon were definitely ahead, possibly by 31 - 12.
The opening try was scored by James Webb after the first demonstration of some excellent movement of the ball through the hands by the backs, and some excellent support play. Levi Galodamu at inside centre took advantage of the reasonable balls that I chucked him from fly half and his runs were a combination of dummy pass, side step, powering through poor attempts at tackles and speed. James Webb took full advantage of this by making sure he was there in support to take the final pass and run in the tries. James converted his first try and then soon after scored and converted his second try of the day. The next try was scored by Jesse Mortimer, supporting and joining the line from full back, and James again managed to kick the conversion.Then Jesse scored his second try of the day but the conversion wasn't completed this time.
The first half continued with an excellent display of teamwork from all fifteen players and the forwards' hard work in the set pieces gave the backs the opportunity to run the ball time and time again. Several of the day's tries were scored by breaking through the Wallingford defence and then timing the pass to the supporting player to defeat their full back's efforts and running in from distance.
Wallingford were reeling under the onslaught but their experienced pack managed to drive the ball forward and make good ground on the occasions when they took possession. determined defence by the Abingdon players managed to keep them at bay for most of the first half, but eventually they managed to force over a brace of tries. They only managed to convert the first of these.
Another period of pressure on the Abingdon try line was relieved when I made my only kick of the first half and managed to find a good touch beyond the 22m line after being thrown a totally unexpected pass by Alex Smith, who said afterwards that he wanted to give the ball to someone who was a better kicker. He must be awful if he chose me!
The final score of the first half is an event that I and many others who were there will never forget. After yet another break from inside our half, Toby Price on the right wing found himself in support of Levi and we all held our breath as Levi drew the last man and then threw the pass to Toby. Not only did he catch it, he then ran in the try from a good thirty yards and just touched down before he was tackled. He would have had a bit more time if he hadn't got carried away with the prospect of scoring his first try ever and starting to celebrate ten yards short of the line, (somewhat in the manner of a footballer I regret to report, although he was gently reminded that we don't do that sort of thing in rugby)! The conversion wasn't completed this time.
So probably 31-12 at half time. Toby was allowed to enjoy his first try on the touchline and Tim Darby took his place on the right wing.
The sun had got low enough by the start of the second half to cause problems for the backs and there were several passes that Israel sent in my direction that I had to guess the location of until they were in front of my face. We overcame these problems, but the team did lose its concentration for a short period and allowed Wallingford to score another try through their forwards after a long period of pressure on our line. A quick word behind the posts whilst waiting for the failed conversion attempt, and the standard of the first half was soon back in evidence.
Jesse opened the second half scoring with a super display of full back support play on the right and manged to run round the Wallingford winger and bamboozle their full back, running most of the length of the pitch to touch down between the posts. James Webb managed to convert again, although he must have been getting a bit fatigued as this was the last of his conversions.
It may have been the next try where it was Tim Darby's turn to run most of the length of the pitch and he looked certain to score. Unfortunately his legs turned to lead a couple of yards short of the line and he was held up by the lone Wallingford defender who had bothered to chase him. Fortunately, when the ball was knocked from his hands it went backwards and once again James Webb was there in support to score yet another try. Unsuccessful with the conversion attempt.
Around this time, both the Abingdon props were running out of puff. It seemed to me that Fifian Stevie Ratu was suffering more than Simon Bryant, so it was Stevie that made way for John Wiblin to join the party for the last 15 minutes or so. Welcome back from retirement John!
Time after time the Abingdon backs made good use of the ball presented to them by the hard work of the forwards and attack after attack was launched at the Wallingford defence. Next it was Frazer McCairns' turn to join the try scoring list, again unconverted, and then James Webb was there to take the glory twice more after tremendous runs from Levi again, and good combinations between Israel Vola and Tim Uludole at the base of the scrum, which Wallingford were doing their utmost to disrupt, but with limited success.
A few mistakes were made during the game and it is hoped that lessons were learnt so that the mistakes will not be repeated. I only kicked the ball once in the second half too, this time to space behind the Wallingford defensive line and well followed up by Jesse, this time on the left. Jim was rested, partly due to his recent flu but aso because it was difficult to know where to change the team, and his willingness to play despite not feeling 100% is fully appreciated. James scored 5 tries and 4 conversions, a total of 33 points, Jesse scored three tries, and Frazer and not forgetting Toby scored the other two tries. Somewhere, whilst all this was happening Wallingford managed to score their fourth try for a bonus point, but they were comprehensively beaten by the latest Abingdon IIs scratch team 56 - 22.
Well played everyone and thank you for yoyr tremendous support. It makes all the hard work worth while ...well almost!
Kelvin.
Abingdon II were due to travel away to Reading and I was not the only one who was relieved when the opposition called the match off at 10:30am on the morning of the game due to the pitches being snowbound - although I was probably the most relieved as by then I was the only player left in the team and I couldn't get my car out of the drive!
The traditional Boxing Day match was also unplayable as the cold snap continued and the snow didn't clear.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year.
Kelvin.
A pitch inspection took place on the Friday afternoon and it was evident that the frozen pitches were unlikely to thaw sufficiently for the game to be played safely so the decision was made to postpone the home game.
Apologies for the delay in posting this match report.
After a three week break due to cup week and bad weather the Second XV travelled to Didcot with more players than I knew what to do with. A number of Fijian players had turned up unexpectedly with the three expected from Dalton Barracks, and I was faced with the luxury of being able to give the First XV three subs. and still travelled with seven subs. Unfortunately, when the Didcot team saw the quality and number of our players they insisted that the number of subs. that would be allowed to be played should be limited to three, as that was all they had. That is of course their right within the rules of the league, but what to do with all the new players? I felt that it was important to keep them interested in playing for the club so decided that they should all get changed and I would make tactical substitutions depending on the progress of the game. I gathered all the players together and explained my decision and asked them if anyone had any problems with this. Nobody objected, and a couple of the more regular players asked if it was OK with me if they went off to do other things, to which I readily agreed. However, it appears that at least one member of the team was not happy with this aspect of the decision and was heard to moan before the game and then followed this up with a complaint to be raised via the club secretary at the next committee meeting, rather than discuss his concerns with me after the game. Well, apart from the disrespect that this action displayed for all the hard work that has been put into getting the Second XV out each week for the last three years, I ask, where has that person been since? Without the support and efforts of some of the players that turned up for the Didcot match there would not have been a Second XV playing in January (see next match report for further details).
After introducing the players to each other as usual at the start of a Second XV match, Abingdon started strongly and were awarded a penalty in a kickable position within five minutes of the start. Unfortunately, my shouts from the touchline to kick for early points was not heard and the opportunity to take an early lead was lost. The game continued from end to end with both sides performing better in defence than attack so that the first points were not put on the board until the 35th minute of the first half. Abingdon finally made use of their backs and the first try was scored after a spectacular run by one of the new Fijians in the team, Matthew Matavesi (or was it Matateni? Two similar players with far too similar names for my old brain to separate them on the pitch!). The extra two points for the conversion were taken by ex-colt James Webb.
Unfortunately, this seemed to galvanise the Didcot team into making a much better effort in the second half, and Abingdon quickly found themselves on the wrong end of two tries, one of which was converted, and a penalty, leaving them trailing 15 - 5 after 50 minutes. The second half was characterised by Abingdon not taking on board the half time analysis - which was that they should keep the ball as far as possible away from the stronger and better drilled Didcot pack. So many balls were lost in the loose or turned over after a tackle that I lost count, and the excellent performance of the first half was no longer in evidence. There were occasional flashes that recalled the earlier excellence and on 55 minutes there was another exciting move through the backs culminating with Matthew Matavesi (or was it Matateni?) scoring again on 58 minutes, which James Webb successfully converted, again bringing Abingdon within 1 point, (why didn't we take those early points?).
Unfortunately, this score once again galvanised the Didcot pack into action and they first forced a penalty on 69 minutes , which they duly converted thereby taking the lead back up to 4 points, and followed this 5 minutes later with another converted try, giving them a lead of 11 points at 25 - 14. The last five minutes of the match gave Abingdon the prospect of scraping a win when another exciting move was started deep in the Abingdon 22 with the backs combining well to allow George, another of the Fijian players to run in his first try for the club on 77 minutes. James Webb unfortunately was unable to convert this time, leaving Abingdon trailing by 6 points with only three minutes left on the clock. One more converted try would do the job, but the fairy tale ending was not to be and instead Didcot once again managed to force their way through the Abingdon defence to score another try, which they managed to convert with almost the final kick of the game on 80 minutes, and with the light fading rapidly the final whistle ended Abingdon's hopes.
My thanks go to the guys from Dalton Barracks that helped out, including Mike Padmore at hooker, Jason Lowe at second row and Ritchie Crane at fly-half (who had the experience of playing outside scrum-half Nick Connolly having an absolute mare of a game - and managing to survive unscathed! For once I was glad I wasn't playing!!). Without these guys, and the 7 Fijians that turned up with them, Abingdon would not have been able to put out two full teams with subs. and the result of this match would have been a much larger defeat.
Thanks also to the regular guys in the team who understood the need to keep these new players interested in the club and who were prepared to stand on the touchline and support the team. Your attitude was greatly appreciated and helped me to deal with the unprecedented situation of having far more players than I could give a game to. Oh for the days of friendly fixtures before the leagues, when there would have been no problem with everyone getting a run out!
Kelvin.
It almost proved impossible to put out a second team this week. After texting and phoning anyone I could think of, and even some I don't even know, (does anyone know Perry Frost's proper mobile number?), the seven players available from last week were joined by six - (should have been eight - read on) - others for our trip down to the welcoming Aldermaston rugby club.
The troubles started even before I got to the club with young second row George Law phoning to say that his boots were in his Dad's car and it had gone off for an MOT - they knew not where. I could tell from the sounds in the background that George was unlikely to get his boots without some help so I asked to speak to Law senior and explained how much we needed George to be with us. Fortunately the car was traced to a nearby street and the boots recovered. At the meet time Nick Connolly was supposed to have been with us but unusually hadn't turned up or been in contact and there was no response to the increasingly desperate voicemails that were left for him. He made his excuses on Sunday - a wholly believable and interesting tale of family water leaks/damaged ceilings/forgotten mobile.
A very small worried looking group of players welcomed me in the car park at Aldermaston! I was hoping that Ben Caudle was going to be able to get away from work in time to join us but when I phoned him I was disappointed to hear that there was no chance. This left us without a functioning front row as John Scott had agreed to play at all with reluctance due to suffering from a bad back and as I started to consider our options I was shocked to hear a couple of players say that they would rather go home and watch the international on TV. I am unable to repeat what I said or what I thought at the time as this may be read by youngsters, but for those of you who know me well I am sure you can imagine! I must also record that after playing they had the good grace to apologise, admit that it was a poor attitude to display before a match and admit that they had enjoyed the game.
So, no Ben or Nick but who else was missing from those that met at Abingdon. A quick check of the team sheet identified Adam Evans as missing. A quick mobile call traced him. Despite having looked at the printed directions/map that I had thoughtfully supplied he had elected to rely on some new fangled electronic route guide that had decided to take him through the centre of Reading and he estimated that he was about twenty minutes away, but expected to be in time for kick off.
The rules of the league allow the match to be played as a friendly if one side is unable to start with a fit and experienced front row, with the other side being awarded the points for the match and a 0 - 0 draw result. The advantage for us was that by turning up to play the match we were not docked five league points. Aldermaston accepted the situation in good grace and offered to lend us a prop plus another player so that we could play a 15-a-side friendly and those that were there got changed. The match was originally due to KO at 2:15 but at 2:25 there was still no sign of Adam.
He may have been with us on time if he hadn't driven past the entrance to Aldermaston and then rung me in confusion from Tadley rugby club thinking he might be lost! As I started to explain how to get back to us he realised that he had driven past the entrance and feeling confident at last that he would arrive I rang off. He appeared just after the match started, with Abingdon fielding three Aldermaston players, and then had to get changed outside as the changing rooms had been locked! By the time he had run around finding somewhere private to get changed and relieve himself he was warmed up enough to swap places with the loaned back row player - although some of the Abingdon team thought they only had fourteen men on the pitch and tried to get the loaned player to stay on - a tactic that may have worked if the spare shirts had not been locked in the changing room! It was getting darker by now but fortunately the only thing glowing was the referee's shirt which was a lurid fluorescent yellow/green!
How did the game go you are probably asking by now? Well we lost, but for once it actually didn't seem to matter. The thirteen players that Abingdon finally managed to put on the pitch had a great afternoon running around in an increasingly fading light, (fortunately the referee only played around thirty minutes each half), with several of them playing out of their usual positions. Two tries were scored by Aldermaston in the first half, one of them converted, and two further tries in the second half, neither converted.
Everybody played well but special mention must go to David Wilson who had been reclaimed from the first team late on Friday night - when I found out that they had selected one of my centres - a strange replacement perhaps but the only option available, and who played a stormer in his first outing at flanker. Also George Law in his second outing this season again having a great game, (Note to George - try to change your Saturday shifts permanently! Oh and don't leave your boots in the car boot again!), and Coops in his first outing at fly-half. Josh Harwood did his best at scrum half but it really isn't his position and when he had to leave the field late on Tim Nash was almost over eager to impress his family on the touchline by moving into the backs again, ( although he was disappointed to find out later that his son had fallen asleep well before half time!). A final special mention has to be made for new player Mike Cardin who thought he was only going to be on the bench but had to play at outside centre for the whole game. Mike admits he is an inexperienced ex school player (a few years ago!) who has never really had a position before, but he listened to the guys around him and looks like he could quickly establish himself in the team. Welcome Mike.
After the match many of the older players in the team remarked on the fact that the whole atmosphere in which the teams were evened out, the spirit in which the game was played, and the irrelevance of whether or not they won, reminded them what rugby at our level used to be like before the introduction of leagues - i.e. fun! All I can say is try to bring that feeling to every game. Rugby at our level is meant to be fun - yes it is nice to win and get league points, but that is not my prime aim when I spend hours trying to get fifteen guys together on a Saturday afternoon. My aim is that you enjoy your Saturday afternoon amongst a bunch of guys you can call mates, and that you walk off the pitch at the end of the game feeling like the team did at Aldermaston.
Thanks to Aldermaston for being such a welcoming club and contributing to our enjoyment in such a friendly spirit. I still feel that fifteen Abingdon players would have run them very close so I am looking forward to the return game later in the season.
Thanks also to everyone who contributed in their own way to the enjoyment of the day, (Note to players - no malice intended in reporting your faux pas! It makes the report more enjoyable to read I hope!).
No game next Saturday, 27th November, as the First XV are in a cup game against Wheatley, so everyone should be fit for the next game at home on 4th December against Shire Hall (another first team in our league!).
Kelvin.
Only six players managed to make themselves available again from the slaughter at Slough, so once again we started with the handicap of not having a settled team. Unusually, some players turned up unexpectedly just before kick-off, but were unable to play as Harwell were not prepared to let us play more than four subs. The extra subs were offered to Harwell, but in the event they chose not to use them. The moral is: if you want to play contact Kelvin before match day! The first team travelled with no subs and would have welcomed the help of an extra couple of players.
For once the second team started like a rocket and the first try was scored in the first minute by Mike Cyster, although I can't tell you how as I was filling the water bottles! James Webb, who only finished work in Culham half an hour before kick off, but still managed to be on the pitch at the start, was unable to convert his first attempt at goal. Harwell's indiscipline in their 22 gave him a chance at a penalty after twelve minutes and he slotted this one between the posts for an 8 - 0 lead.
Harwell hadn't learnt their lesson and after only another three minutes of play they were penalised again within kicking distance. James Webb once again slotted the attempt at goal to give Abingdon a well deserved 11 - 0 lead. The Abingdon scrum were dominating at this point and were providing some excellent ball from set scrums that was giving the Abingdon backs the opportunity to make penetrating forays into the Harwell territory. Unfortunately, one of the Harwell props injured his ankle and was unable to continue after twenty minutes of the first half and the subsequent uncontested set scrums led to a lot less good possession for the Abingdon backs.
It took a while for the team to adjust to the change in play, but gradually they began to dominate again and after thirty minutes Jim Crossland ran in his customary try and James Webb added the extra two points to increase the lead to 18 - 0. From the restart Abingdon secured good ball and after driving through the forwards the ball was quickly moved along the backs for Alex "Coops" Cooper, joining the line from full back, to touch down wide on the left after just four more minutes of play. James came close but just failed to convert. Harwell continued to try to break through the Abingdon lines but the defence held solid and when the referee blew for half time Abingdon were able to savour the luxury of leading the game 23 - 0.
Abingdon made two changes at half time, with Martin Davies replacing Simon Bryant at hooker, hardly diluting the experience of the front row with John Scott and Ben Caudle still propping, and Alex Smith joining the back row in place of Adam Evans who had made a successful return from injury. Harwell certainly hadn't given up hope of scoring and pressured Abingdon for the next ten minutes but the Abingdon defence held strong and prevented Harwell from breaking their duck.
After a further ten minutes of play where the Abingdon side appeared to have lost a bit of direction the third substitution of the day was made with Will Owen joining the back row in place of Tim Nash. Will went to No8 and new player Craig Blackwell, who had impressed so far in his first game for the club, moved over to flanker. This change gradually had the desired effect and galvanized the team into upping their performance, with excellent support play being shown as Will broke several times from the base of the scrum.
Toby Price made way on the wing after 55 minutes of the match and was replaced by the experienced Eddie Cairns returning from injury. Eddie immediately demonstrated his experience by remonstrating with the referee for not awarding him a penalty when he quite reasonably thought he had been tackled without the ball! Fortunately the referee was feeling generous as Eddie had been running the line as touchjudge till then and had perhaps missed the referee's earlier warnings for backchat! No excuse for him having a second go at the ref and he is considered by some to have been lucky not to have been yellow carded within seconds of arriving on the pitch!
For some of us watching from the touchline it seemed in the first twenty minutes of the second half that Abingdon were in danger of resting on the laurels of their first half performance and it seemed increasingly likely that Harwell would score. Then, without warning the team seemed to have a collective realisation of the danger and started to perform again at the high standard of the first half. The backs combined with the forwards over a number of phases of play and this led to Will Owen driving over for the first try of the second half, sixty four minutes into the game. James Webb once again came close but failed to convert.
The game continued to be interesting and exciting to watch, with Abingdon defending their lines well and then breaking out in attack with forwards and backs combining as though they played together every week! (If only we could!!!). After seventy minutes the pressure resulted in a try for the hard working front row, with John Scott driving over. James Webb didn't allow his earlier misses to affect his concentration and he slotted his kick between the posts for the last score of the match. Abingdon were the deserving winners by 35 - 0.
Thanks once more to everyone who turned out, and welcome to Dan Ashworth at second row, Craig Blackwell at back row and Barry Hughes, back after many years on the wing - who was inspired to buy new boots after many years when he saw that Howard Davies had returned to the fray! - all of who made valuable contributions to the team performance.
Kelvin
This match report is being posted later than normal as it has taken me over a week to get over the disappointment. The omens for the day were not good when a text was received at 08:25 from Dave Leach saying that he had fallen down stairs and really hurt his shoulder and was off to A & E. That left the team with no front row and we were faced with the prospect of travelling all the way to Slough knowing that they would be awarded the 5 league points and a 0 - 0 result. As the day turned out that would have been netter for our points difference, but as we were gathering in the clubhouse Mo's friend Hennrey from South Africa volunteered the information that he had played prop so we were again in a position to fulfil the front row requirements.
The team again suffered from having to make ten changes from the last game and travelled with no recognised scrum half or centres, players returning from injury and Barry Hughes in his first game for around 7 years! We faced a very strong Slough team, who had at least one 1st team player in their squad - as we found out when he was given the man of the match and it was announced he had been dropped from the 1st XV as he had been sent off the previous week! In Oxfordshire his club would have had to hold a disciplinary hearing and suspend him but they obviously do things differently in Berkshire!
Abingdon suffered a number of injuries, including prop John Scott who split his right eyebrow to match the left that he split in his previous match, and Kelvin who strained his hamstring in the warm up and eventually had to go off leaving Tim Nash as fly half, but stuck to their task and defended as well as they could. Unfortunately, the lack of recognised backs and the fact that the players were not used to playing together allowed Slough to run in 14 tries without reply, including at least three by their man of the match (see comments above), and they converted 11 of these to run out winners by 92 - 0.
It wasn't quite as one - sided as the score implies but if players do not make themselves available every week so that a more constant team can play we are likely to suffer more embarrassing scorelines like this during the rest of the season. Over 60 players have worn a Second XV shirt so far this season! Thanks as usual to those who did make themselves available for the long trip. At least we don't have to travel that far again this season.
Kelvin
When will the Second XV be able to put out the same team two weeks in a row? Again, 8 changes in the starting line up from last time out and that makes it difficult to put on a goog performance for the many supporters who came down to watch this week. I can only apologise to the very welcome supporters and hope it hasn't put you off coming down again.
Abingdon did their best to play as a team and put on a display in the first half that was impressive in parts, but unfortunately we were unable to convert the many periods of pressure in Hungerford's 22 into any points and turned round at half time trailing by one try to nil.
The second half started badly with the all too normal lack of concentration and poor tackling allowing Hungerford to quickly stretch their lead by a further try that they duly converted. Abingdon responded with their first try scored by Mo DeBoer and converted by James Webb. Unfortunately the Abingdon pack must have started to get tired because the superiority that they had displayed in the first half disappeared allowing Hungerford to present their backs with better ball. They made good use of this and scored three tries in quick succession, two of which they managed to convert. There were some periods of Abingdon pressure but noticeably less than in the first half. One of these periods led to Jim Crossland scoring a try but the conversion failed. Hungerford replied with another converted try before Dave Wilson forced over the final try of the game for Abingdon. Unfortunately the conversion was again missed and when the final whistle blew Abingdon again came second, losing by 17 - 38. It could be seen in the eyes of several of the Abingdon players at the end of the game that they were disappointed to have lost a game that they could have easily won, but as usual there were some good periods of play and that gives hope for the future of the team. we just need to put the good bits together and cut out the bad bits!
Once again, thanks from Kelvin to everyone who turned out on the day.
Kelvin
The Second XV only had ten different players in the starting line up compared with last week and three different subs who all made appearances in the second half. It didn't help that two players dropped out just after the one o'clock meet time - they both had valid excuses but the stress is definitely not good for Kelvin's blood pressure!
That makes close on 50 different players that have turned out for the team in five matches! A big difference was made to the performance this week by the fact that despite the many changes most of the players knew each other and had played together before. The pack was strengthened by the return from the First XV of John Scott in the front row and Josh Harwood in the back row. Sam Wellstood returned from injury to partner David Wilson in the second row, and Mo Deboer started his first full game since Kelvin was last captain about seven years ago. Tim Nash completed the back row with his first complete game since returning from long term knee ligament injury.
The backs were strengthened by the return of Frazer McCairns and Tim Darby in the centre and Jim Crossland on one wing. Alex "Coops" Cooper filled in at full back and settled well into an unfamiliar role. The backs were completed with Toby Price on the other wing, Nick Connolly at 9 and Kelvin Sykes at 10. The subs saw the return of Brad Joyce for his first game of the season, Richard Higgs gaining a bit more experience and South African Awie Schrauder, who had been persauded to have a run out by Kelvin even though his last game was in 1993 and he had to buy some boots on the Saturday morning! Awie returns to South Africa at the end of October, which is a shame as he showed promise when he came on in the second half. Hopefully he will remember us when he is panning for gold and maybe donate a nugget or two to help the club funds!
This local derby against Grove III is always a keenly contested match and the Abingdon pack dominated both the scrums and the line outs in the first half. This produced some good possession for the backs, and the half backs combined well to present some good ball which was used by the rest of the backs making some penetrative runs into the Grove half. This eventually led to Jim Crossland scoring the first try but it was a little far out for Frazer to convert.
Grove tried very hard to break the Abingdon defence but even when they broke the first line the second line held solid. Abingdon continued to dominate in the set pieces and this good possession led to an excellent period of passing and support play in combination between the forwards and backs, with Frazer finishing the move with his first try. He made sure that he touched down close enough to the posts to enable him to convert and add the extra two points. This was followed by some more determined attacks from Grove which were again defended valiantly, and they suffered another set back with Frazer scoring his second try which he again converted. At half time Grove had failed to take advantage of playing with the wind and turned round with the score 19 - 0 in Abingdon's favour.
In the second half, Awie, Brad and Richard came on and gave well deserved rests to Toby and Jim on the wings and Sam in the pack. The team continued to defend in depth but eventually Grove managed to force over a try which they managed to convert. Abingdon quickly responded with Frazer's third try of the match (what happened to the jug?) again successfully converted to give Abingdon a commanding lead.
The game continued to be close fought with both defences soaking up a lot of pressure, but eventually the Abingdon superiority again showed with Brad Joyce celebrating his return to the side with his first try of the season. Frazer legs must have run out of steam by this time as No. 8 Josh Harwood attempted the conversion and came close but failed to gain the extra points.
Abingdon ended as the winners 31 - 7, even though the referee mistakenly only recorded two of the three successful conversions on the match card. He has since apologised for his error and is contacting the league administartors to ask for the error to be corrected. Who knows, the extra two points may make a difference to our league position at the end of the season, and having fought so hard all afternoon to score them it is only right that the error should be corrected.
Thanks to all who turned out and put their heart and soul into the match. It cetainly repayed my efforts to get a team out and it felt great to have another win - especially against the old enemy. We have a break next week to allow the niggling injuries and bruises to heal and hopefully we will continue the winning ways against Hungerford at home the folowing week.
Kelvin
This week Abingdon II once again suffered from not being able to put out a consistent team. There were six forced personnel changes and also positional changes amongst the six players that returned from last week. In four weeks the number of different players that have turned out for the Second XV now exceeds 40!
Kelvin extended a warm welcome to Colts George Law and Manuel Hupfer in their first game for a senior side. It was also encouraging to see the return of Tim Nash, after being out since January 2009 with a knee injury, and Mo DeBoer who hadn't played since Kelvin last captained the side about seven years ago!
This week the front row was cobbled together from three hookers and they were performing well in the set pieces until after about twenty minutes Simon Bryant suffered from an accidental stamp to the left hand that had the opposition's medic insisting he had to go to hospital immediately to get an x-ray. Possibly the last time we listen to an opposition medic as it turned out to be heavy bruising and Simon thinks he could have played on! Not having any experienced front row cover in the team the rest of the game was played with unopposed set scrums, which did us no favours at all.
Kingsclere, who actually only run one team now so are actually a first team, took advantage of the fact that they were a more settled and coached team and continuously broke from number 8 and attacked the 9/10 channel of Abingdon. This continuously drew in the Abingdon defensive line and allowed Kingsclere to develop an overlap on nearly every attack. The Abingdon players managed to settle quickly this week and put up a tremendous defensive display that managed to disrupt many of the Kingsclere moves and prevent them from running away with the match in the first half. Abingdon managed to pressure the Kingsclere line on a number of occasions but the lack of match practice together told against the team and we were unable to convert any of the attacks into points.
In the second half Abingdon continued to play with spirit and for a period of around twenty minutes managed to put together some strong attacking moves, but again just failed to convert them into points. Further injuries to back row Jamie Goswell and Adam Evans gave Tim Nash and Alex Smith, nursing a broken finger, the chance to enter the fray but a sprained ankle for Tom Duncan at outside centre led to Abingdon playing the last twenty minutes of the game with only fourteen men on the pitch. Every one of those fourteen kept their heads up and gave their all right up to the final whistle but Kingsclere managed to run in six tries during this period to add to their earlier six. At least three of the twelve tries were scored by the number 8 picking up from five metre set scrums - tries which are virtually impossible to stop with unopposed scrums. Kingsclere managed to convert only six of the twelve tries and one opportune dropped goal in addition led to the final result, with Abingdon II losing 0 - 75.
The score line once again this week does not reflect the true balance of the game and, apart from the final quarter of the match when Abingdon was reduced to fourteen men, it certainly was no walk over for the Kingsclere First XV. Once again, Kelvin thanks all the Abingdon players for making themselves available. Even though we were beaten, everyone who took part put 100% effort into the game and there were some very good periods of play. There is plenty of potential in the team - we just need to be able to put out a more consistent group of players from week to week to be able to realise that potential and return to winning ways.
Kelvin
With ten forced changes from last week's team, and positional changes amongst the other five players, it was not surprising that Abingdon struggled this week and lost 5 - 55 to an obviously more settled Wallingford side, although the scoreline does not accurately reflect the fact that Abingdon pressured the Wallingford try line on a number of occasions. Only three matches into the season and the Second XV has already seen over 35 different players turn out on a Saturday afternoon! This week it proved particularly difficult to raise a team and the captain, Kelvin Sykes, extends his thanks to everyone who turned out, including Simon Fox in his first game for the club and colt James Webb in his first senior match.
The first half started with Abingdon playing with the wind and Josh Harwood followed up a hopeful hacked kick and managed to pile over, for what turned out to be Abingdon's only points of the match as the conversion attempt failed. Wallingford scored a converted try and then chose to take a successful penalty kick at goal, which indicates that they were concerned about Abingdon scoring again at this early stage of the match. Abingdon came close on a number of occasions but failed to convert the pressure into points and were punished by a brace of converted Wallingford tries before half time, thereby trailing by 22 - 5 when the whistle went for the break.
The second half was again exciting for the spectators with play moving from end to end but unfortunately for Abingdon the Wallingford backs managed to run in a couple of breakaway tries that were duly converted. The Abingdon players showed great spirit and continued to make inroads to the Wallingford half, but some poor tackling led to another couple of Wallingford tries that they converted, and a final breakaway try just before the final whistle that they failed to convert.
Even though the match was lost, everyone in the Abingdon side played their hearts out and, although exhausted at the final whistle, still managed to appreciate the fact that they had got their Saturday afternoon game of rugby due to the fact that several of the team had made a special effort to be available to play. Kelvin again extends his thanks for the efforts made by the whole team.
Unless the Second XV is able to put out a more consistent squad of players from week to week it is likely that they will face similar difficulties and struggle against weaker sides than Wallingford. Positives to take from the game were the successful return of some senior players, including some who have suffered from long term injury, and the good performance from the younger players, none of whom appeared out of their depth amongst the more experienced members of both sides. At this rate some of the over 50s may even be able to join the proposed Vets XV!
Kelvin
The Second XV suffered from six forced changes in the team and a few positional changes amongst those that played last week. Unfortunately, before the changed team could settle and get used to playing together Reading ran in an early try that was successfully converted. Abingdon quickly responded with a try of their own when new prop Greg Lacey, in his first game for the club, burst free from a maul and forced his way through the Reading defence. Unfortunately Frazer McCairns was unable to convert. There followed a period of evenly balanced pressure with both sides making forays into the opposition half but the respective defences stood firm. The breakthrough was made after some good movement of the ball with the forwards and backs combining well, resulting in Frazer McCairns touching down close to the posts. Frazer then managed to convert to give Abingdon the lead. The Abingdon backs were presented with some good possession from the solid scrummaging and displayed some exciting movement of the ball through the hands, but were unfortunately kept just short of the Reading try line by a combination of solid defence and the final pass being wayward on several occasions. Eventually Abindgon were made to pay for their failure to score by Reading quickly passing the ball along their own back line and their winger finishing off the move with Reading's second try. Their fly half duly converted to take Reading back into the lead. The Abingdon pack was weakened when the new prop Dave Leach, also in his first game for the club, strained his hamstring and was unable to continue. Alex Willis moved from hooker to prop and Paul Watts came off the bench but the enforced change unsettled the Abingdon side. The game was finely balanced for much of the rest of the first half until the same flanker that scored Reading's first try forced his way over in the corner to score his second of the day. This time the fly half failed to convert. At half time Abingdon trailed 12 - 19.
The second half was again marked by some exciting backs moves by both sides, combined with some determined rucking from the packs, and the game flowed from end to end with both sides being held at bay by some very good defensive work. Reading eventually managed to break the stalemate and their winger scored his second try of the day which was again converted to give Reading a fourteen point lead. Abingdon still looked as though they would reduce the deficit at any moment and so when Reading were awarded a penalty within kicking distance they opted to take the kick at goal and duly added a further three points. Abingdon stuck to their task and another good movement of the ball along the backs led to Frazer McCairns breaking free and avoiding the Reading defence to run in his second try. Unfortunately the effort of running in from so far out seemed to affect his concentration and he was unable to convert the goal attempt. Reading had made a number of substitutions at half time and unfortunately Abingdon were unable to match this and although captain Kelvin Sykes, returning from long term injury, did come on for the last twenty minutes and Ed O'reilly for the last ten, the fresher legs of the Reading team enabled them to force a final try which remained unconverted , but gave them the win by 34 points to 17.
Once again, Kelvin extends his thanks to everyone who played or supported on the day and especially welcomes the three new players, Greg Lacey, Dave Leach and Andy Jolly to their first game for the club and Dave Wilson - who now feels like an old hand - after playing his second game.
Kelvin
Get your Abingdon RUFC Writstband either from behind the bar of from the Under 15's. All proceeds to the Under 15's Tour 2012. Only £2.00 Each. | Weather for Abingdon | |||
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The club shop is open for business with a great range of playing and training gear, club-branded clothing and gifts and accessories. The shop is open most Sunday mornings throughout the season and accepts cash, cheques and credit cards. Please see Mick or Tracy behind the bar if the shop is not open. Limited Stock - Shorts, Socks and Jackets Left. Senior Rugby:
19.30pm - 21.00pm Every Tuesday 19.30pm - 21.00pm Some Thursdays
Junior/Mini Rugby:
10.30 - 12.00 Every Sunday
Individual teams also train midweek, see team coaches for more info.
Abingdon Rugby Club LTD
Southern Sports Park
Lambrick Way
Abingon
OX14 5TJ
Tel. 01235 553810
