Minchinhampton V St.Brendan's, 3rd November 2007
Saturday 3rd November saw the St Brendan’s squad travel up the M5 for our first meeting this season with Minchinhampton RFC. After the traditional late arrivals, we set off; unfortunately, only one of us had had the foresight to bring directions. So it wasn’t entirely surprising that we arrived in fits and starts, or that the mobile phone came to the rescue of more than one lost St Brendan’s Old Boy.
But the early start gave us what was probably the longest warm-up we’ve ever had, and by the time the match kicked off we might actually all have known the various backs moves and lineout calls. We welcomed back Taff and Chilvers from injury layoffs and Gollum, who’s blatantly decided to ignore his doctor’s advice in favour of pinching opposition scrum ball, whilst also giving several others their SBOB debuts.
With the non-playing El Capitan providing the soundtrack on the sidelines, ably supported by Kevin McGarry who had come along despite it being his birthday, SBOB were immediately on the offensive. Our pack took on Minchinhampton’s up front, winning turnover ball and set piece, and before long we had a scrum deep in their 22. One of our now-well-known backs moves was called, but was unnecessary as fly-half Taff Powell dummied his way through a couple of tackles and over the line for our first try. The man himself had recovered enough to also kick the conversion, off a plastic cone in the typical absence of a tee. 7-0.
Most of the game was being played in the Minchinhampton half, and this continued after the restart with some neat offloads out of the tackle courtesy of the SBOB back row who seemed to be everywhere. It seemed unlikely that we’d have to wait long for our second try, and that proved to be the case. In similar fashion to the first one, Taff decided to use the SBOB centres as dummy runners only, and beat his man to go over for his, and our, second try of the match in almost exactly the same place. The pack had again done the damage, gaining territory and possession deep in the Minchinhampton half and giving the half-backs decent ball. Once more, Taff stepped up to convert his own try, and it was Anthony Powell 14, Minchinhampton 0.
But we weren’t having it all our own way. Ian Mussell narrowly lost a race with the ball to the dead-ball line after a slip from the Minchinhampton full-back, and the MRFC backs were keen to get the ball through their hands. Several clearance kicks had been fielded and returned with interest by the SBOB back 3, until an up-and-under from the halfway line was dropped horribly on his own 22 by SBOB full-back Chilvers. Not only a knock-on, the ball bounced invitingly into the Minchinhampton chasers, giving them an easy run in under the posts and an easy conversion to reduce the arrears to seven.
They were back in our half again as we failed to gather the restart, then conceded a penalty 25m out. Fortunately for us it was missed, and after Taff hammered the drop-out deep into the Minchinhampton half, we were back in familiar territory. This time, as the ball was released from the forwards, Taff opted not to go for his hat-trick and instead gave it to Greg Turner, playing 12 and in only his second ever game of rugby. Greg’s not easy to stop, and demonstrated this by smashing through the Minchinhampton centres, carrying a couple over the line with him whilst also finding time for a one-handed touch down to score his first try. Taff did the honours with the boot once more, and the half-time score was St Brendan’s Old Boys 21, Minchinhampton 7.
The gist of the half-time team talk was “more of the same please”, as we had played well and the scoreboard reflected this. The same 15 started the second half as had finished the first, but with a very un-Brendan’s-like 6 on the bench, we were playing for our places. And more of the same it was, as once again the SBOB pack gave us a platform deep in the Minchinhampton half. In the absence of Luke and Pete, Rich Hawkridge was our main source of lineout possession, and it was he that claimed one to set up another series of phases. The play worked infield from the right slowly, as successive pick and drives dragged in the Minchinhampton pack, until the ball found its way into the dirty mitts of Warren Fear in front of the posts. We think Warren was actually aiming for the dead-ball line and lacked the lung capacity to get there, but he collapsed over the try line with several opposition players in tow to give SBOB our fourth try of the game. Despite his first half proficiency with the boot, Taff contrived to miss the conversion, but we were still 26-7 ahead and going nicely.
Gollum was replaced by Dave C in the break after the score, with the versatile Spendo moving across the front row to hooker with Dave slotting in at prop. And it wasn’t long before the scoreboard ticked over again. Another lineout in the same corner of the pitch was mauled by the St Brendan’s pack, the irresistible force against Minchinhampton’s not-quite-immovable object. The forwards didn’t get the score, but it mattered little as the ball was flicked out the back of the maul to Rob Hawkridge, flying in off the right wing. He wasn’t going to be stopped and touched down to put us 31-7 ahead. Taff couldn’t add to our tally with a more difficult conversion, but a 24 point lead wasn’t bad.
The missed conversion was also Taff’s last contribution to the SBOB effort, as he went off as part of a multiple change. Will Driver and Pete Hargreaves replaced Dave Watkins and Rich Hawkridge, with a shuffle round in the pack seeing Pete into the second row, Carter to number 8 and Toby onto the flank with Will. Phil and Frank also made their SBOB bows, replacing Ian Mussell and Rob Hawkridge on the wings, while Chris Baber came on at full-back as Chilvers moved to 10 to replace Taff Powell. And then it all went wrong.
Horribly wrong. We fell apart, losing our shape, our nerve and our discipline. Minchinhampton found an extra gear from somewhere, coinciding with SBOB taking the collective foot off the gas, and unsurprisingly the balance of the game began to swing. A couple of quick tries, due in part to a badly organised St Brendan’s defence, saw them come rapidly back into the match. Our misery was compounded when Warren landed a punch that Ricky Hatton would have been proud of, and was duly sent for 10 minutes behind the posts to “reflect”. The momentum was definitely with Minchinhampton, and they’d reduced the deficit by 19 in significantly fewer minutes. We had our backs to the wall, and the forwards too, and were staring at a hugely embarrassing capitulation.
But it was not to be. Despite it looking like most people in the hallowed maroon-and-gold hoops didn’t really know what they were doing, the work rate went up and we kept them out, with Martin Chandler in particular doing his best to out-tackle the back row and seeing stars for his efforts. But it worked, and the final whistle arrived before Minchinhampton could cross our try line again. It had been a lot closer than we’d have liked, and than it should have been, but at 31-26 we had our first league win of the season.
Ben Chilvers