17 Apr 10
Midlands 2 West (South)
Old Laurentians 23 – Droitwich 19
Lovely day, great occasion, great match, great result.
OLs made light of their third game in seven days to come through against a very good Droitwich side and so take over second place in the league from their opponents. They also had to start without two key players, their inspirational skipper and number 8 Carl Adams and centre Iain Wallis both being sidelined with injuries. But the side rose to the occasion, dispelling the disappointment of being knocked out of the Warwickshire Cup in their semi-final against Nuneaton Old Edwardians last Wednesday.
After early thrusts by both sides, Droitwich took the initiative with full back Chris Hooper taking centre stage. As well as troubling OL’s defence early on with his elusive running, the Droitwich man was putting up some steepling kicks with the sun behind him that caused chaos in OL’s defence. Three times his kicks led to scores – on two occasions he put over booming penalties and once fly half Robert Scott-Walker dropped a neat goal, Droitwich moving into a 9-0 lead after 25 minutes.
Then Denzil Evans kicked a penalty to reduce the deficit as OLs began to turn the tide, but a superb penalty by Hooper from nearly 50 metres out restored his side’s advantage at 3-12.
But OLs riposte was decisive. Twice full back Scott Wiles made dangerous thrusts down the left, narrowly failing to put Jamie Brightwell away on each occasion. Then Evans put in a raking crossfield kick for Brightwell to chase, the winger just failing to control the ball with the line beckoning.
OLs put the visitors pack under heavy pressure at the following scrum and stole the ball, Tom Gleghorn skilfully putting Ollie Cowley over for a try that Evans converted with a fine kick from near touch, reducing the margin to 10-12 after 35 minutes.
OLs were now getting into full stride and a sweeping attack going left then right, with Mark Todd featuring prominently, was finished by Tom Gleghorn after Scott Wiles was held inches from the line. Evans converted to put OLs into the lead at 17-12 at a critical stage of the game with half time rapidly approaching.
There was just time before the break for Hooper to attempt another penalty, this time falling short from 60 metres out, following a maul when OL’s Andy Orbinson was yellow carded for an offence that was not obvious to nearby spectators.
OLs went on to the offensive after the break, making light of being reduced to fourteen men for ten minutes, and after a telling thrust by Richard Parker had set up the position Denzil Evans dropped a goal to push his side’s lead out to 20-12, vital points that meant Droitwich needed two scores to get back into contention.
The middle period of the second half produced a period of stalemate when both side’s best attacking efforts were held, although OLs were spending most of it in the Droitwich half. But the decisive breakthrough came after 30 minutes when Chris le Poidevin charged through the middle after good work by Matt Miller, Droitwich offended at the breakdown and Evans put over the resultant penalty to lift the score to 23-12.
This was the signal for a strong Droitwich rally and they worked upfield to create the position for their pack to finally breach OL’s defence and go over for a try, converted by Hooper, that reduced the deficit to 23-19.
The final five minutes were nerve racking for the supporters of both sides, Droitwich needing a try to win the game and save their season but OLs fighting hard to keep them at bay. A great break out of defence by Glenn Todd, with Richard Parker in close support, took pressure off and Simon Bayliss made a stunning tackle to end a dangerous Droitwich attack.
When Evans lifted a penalty way over the touchline to bring the game to an end, the large crowd (the OL’s section) greeted the final whistle with a roar, partly of relief, to salute a job well done
None played a bigger part in a fine win than skipper Glenn Todd, who professes not to enjoy playing number 8 but is making a great job of it in Carl Adams absence; and Mark Todd covered every inch of the Fenley Field pitch with another all action performance. Tom Gleghorn scored a try and set one up, and the second row pairing of Ben O’Riordan and Paul Willis ensured parity at least in the lineout, O’Riordan making a couple of vital steals of opposition throws as well as producing a fine break worthy of a number 10 in the first half.
Richard Parker’s running from scrum half regularly kept his side going forward, the centre pairing of Matt Miller and Danny Murch was rock solid in defence and threatening in attack and on the left flank Jamie Brightwell ran willingly and hard. For once Simon Bayliss finished a game try-less, although always posing problems for the Droitwich defence; but his cover tackles on two occasions may well have been worth ten points to his side; and from full back Scott Wiles was involved in most of OLs best attacking forays.
But it was team work that won the day, not one of the 16 who saw action being prepared to let the league points go.
The top three sides in the league are each in action on Saturday, the final day of the league season. OLs are at home to Spartans, never an easy side to overcome, and a win should see them claim second place and a play off game with the runners up from Midlands 2 West (North) for promotion.
Droitwich can still pinch second place but OL’s points difference is better by 43 points going into the final game and it would take a large score by the Worcestershire side, who travel to Earlsdon for their last game, to overcome that deficit if OLs win. Worcester Wanderers have a two point lead over OLs and Droitwich and should claim the league title on Saturday as they will be favourites to overcome Bedworth in their last game.
Report by Bill Wallis
Daventry III 26 Old Laurentians III 19
With the patio outside the Fenley Field Clubhouse having all the glamour of the Royal Enclosure at Ascot in the glorious April Sunshine, the Thirds pre-match enthusiasm was tinged with a small degree of reluctance on leaving Bilton and Ladies Day for a trip across the border to Northamptonshire and a rare fixture against Daventry.
The second pitch at Daventry is known, even by the members, as “The Dustbowl” and a hard, wide pitch played host to Pete Rigg’s warm up and played hell with the nascent arthritis of some of the more senior members.
An early first scrum of the game saw OLs in trouble. Going backwards and wheeling, it did not bode well for the rest of the afternoon but the visitors soon sorted out the technical problems and the front row of Sullivan, Burnett and Collins were solid for the rest of the game.
After an early period of forward dominance, the ball found its way out wide to Coburn joining the line from full back. Resisting the temptation to make one further pass out to Troy Owen, on the wing, Coburn out paced the drifting cover of Daventry and scored on 10 minutes. White converted to give the OLs a 7 – 0 lead.
Two minutes after the restart and the Thirds got their first taste of the potency of the Daventry back division and of the consequences of missed tackles as the home side scored their first of the day through the centres. The good news was that they missed the conversion; the better news was that the first pint of the afternoon was delivered to the parched touch judge.
Once again, the tireless exploits of Tom Middleton are worthy of mention. In the early stages of the game, where others missed, Tom tackled, where others lagged, Tom advanced and, quite simply, when others didn’t, Tom did.
With OLs starved of possession for long periods of the first half, and despite an improving defensive effort from the visitors, Daventry continued to threaten through the centres and, on 25 minutes, a certain try was saved by the combined tackling of Coburn and Sherriffs. Not that Coburn needed a partner in the tackling business. He made at least two more one on one last ditch tackles to keep the game in OLs sights in the first half.
The loss of Brimley with a rib injury on 35 minutes enabled OLs to add some experience (and approximately 6 stones) in the shape of Dan Volkman, but this wasn’t enough to prevent a breakaway Daventry try on the stroke of half time that was converted.
It was advantage to the home side and 12 – 7 at half time.
Realising their first half error of releasing the ball too early in the first half, OLs followed Captain Middleton’s instructions to run the ball through the phases early in the second half and it began to pay dividends. Taking the ball upfield, Sherriffs, Kennedy and the back row began to punch some holes and draw in defenders. Volkman was now warmed up and the American set about piling into the opposition forwards like they alone were responsible for Pearl Harbour. After nullifying the Daventry threat and exerting persistent pressure for 25 minutes of the second half, OLs were rewarded with a try from Volkman which White converted.
The visitors, now looking decidedly sunburnt, were on top and beginning to look like they could beat a tiring and increasingly nervous home side. It was undeserved and unjust in the extreme that Daventry should score the next try and conversion through their full back.
Lesser sides would have crumbled at this vicious blow, but Old Laurentians Thirds are made of sterner stuff and picked up where they had left off, continuing to run the ball up the park with all 15 now getting involved in a frantic bid for the day’s honours.
OLs found themselves down to 14 players after Rigg was granted 10 minutes rest and thus an early finish following a tete a tete (more precisely main a tete) with his opposite number.
The continued pressure earned OLs penalty on the opposition 10 metre line. This was tapped and was ran through two phases before being fizzed out to Ramsden who drew his tackler to perfection. The pass to Lewis was truly a thing of beauty and, dicing with the touchline, Lewis cut inside his defender to score in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed by White.
With 5 minutes left, Daventry made the most of a poor clearance and managed to get the ball out to their main danger man, the full back who scored to take the score to 26-19.
Unbowed, OLs still went forward, looking for the draw which was the least they deserved for their second half endeavours. Out on the right, the ball found an advancing Kennedy. Justifying his ambition to play fly half, Kennedy sent out a floated miss pass to Troy Owen whose pace and strength were unstoppable on the outside. Or at least they would have been unstoppable were the pass not have been adjudged forward by the referee. Even his Labrador barked in disagreement. Owen, who had looked dangerous (and far too handsome) all afternoon walked back up the touch line looking, for all the world, like a defeated X Factor finalist walking off stage.
A scrum down, a lineout and, with the ref signalling the last play of the game, Daventry couldn’t kick the ball into touch quick enough.
If the Thirds had got onto the opposition from the outset, this could have been a win and they did deserve something for their hard work on a hot day.
News of the first team result lifted the spirits and the consolation of a few drinks watching the sun go down over Lime Tree Avenue assuaged the pain of defeat as thoughts turned to the last game of the season . . .
Report by Tim Chambers
