Reshuffled second team produces another win

After a productive week on the training paddock a strong second team were full of confidence as they turned up to play against Harlow who sit second from bottom in the league. The trouble is often confidence and complacency go hand in hand and in my opinion this is what happened today. Also sickness affected the third team so we reshuffled our team around to help them out.
It began with a lot of players turning up late, one turning up 1 minute before kick off and one even turned up once the game had started. This totally ruined the teams warm up as more time was spent on the phone trying to find them rather than actually warming up. Also we were playing with no recognised 9, 10 or 15 and even though players stepped up and tried their best you could tell they were uncomfortable playing there. The final factor was Harlow had clearly not read the script and they turned up ready to win.
In the second team we are used to playing open flowing rugby, we are blessed with a lot of players who are fit and can get around the park, but for some reason against Harlow we decided to keep it in the forwards and chug our way to the line. This played into Harlow’s big packs hands and they held up the ball or turned it over time and time again. Chance after chance was missed and this led to frustration throughout the back line as unusually the pack decided to pick and go again and again rather than pass to the back line for the certain try. Harlow didn’t look a bad side and their experienced no.8 had and excellent game in defence, turning over isolated players and in illegally slowing down the ball (he was very rarely caught so good on him I think). Maybe a good shoeing is in order next time.
After a succession of penalties Harlow worked their way up field and slotted a penalty (0 – 3)
Manor had lots of possession but couldn’t do anything with it. Too many dropped passes or wrong decision making let Harlow off the hook for at least 20mins. That was until Mr reliable Franny picked up at the base of the scrum swept aside 3 would be tackled to dive over the line. Jack Missed the conversion (5 – 3)
We may have scored and we may have been the better team but we simply weren’t performing like it and it wasn’t long before Harlow got another shot at goal and took it to go ahead (5 – 6). Teams are now aware of the defence of this Manor team and are now definitely taking the option to kick a goal rather than attempt to grab a try and even through our poor first half performance I don’t think Harlow broke our line once.
This was to be the half time score.

Eton Manor 5 Harlow 6

The team was brought together at half time and calmly we discussed where we were going wrong and how we could improve. Subs were brought on to get everyone a game and we were off.

There was a slight improvement in the second half performance and immediately it made a difference. Flanker Gerby picked up a loose pass, beat two players and was in for the try in the corner. Jack missed the conversion. (10 – 6)
10 mins later and from the back of a ruck stand in scrum half Jack White shot around the blindside to cause an over lap, he expertly drew the winger and put Gerby in for his second try. Jack missed the difficult conversion (15 – 6)
Harlow had their fair share of the possession but never really looked like increasing their score, the defence of The Manor never wavered all game.
Our 4th try came courtesy of stand in full back Jumbo who finally touched the ball, he ran down the touch line beating three players in the process and scored in the corner. Jack missed the conversion again (20 – 6)
Our 5th and final try came from centre Ben Ward who really doesn’t get mentioned enough in our match reports, he rarely beats 4 players to score in the corner but he never makes a mistake in defence or attack and in my opinion he is the rock that makes the backs tick. So I was very glad when he got the ball in the centres, stepped inside his opposite number and dived over the whitewash. Jack got the only easy conversion of the match. (27 – 6)

This was to be the final score. Eton Manor 27 Harlow 6

In all honesty we may have won the game but nobody from our team played to our usual standards. Pretty much all the try’s came from individual brilliance not team play.
Harlow were decent enough opposition and we have played a lot worse teams in our league this season so we wish the luck with their relegation battle.
But on the plus side if you can play badly and still win comfortably then things can’t be too bad. The actual score line could have been quite a bit more if we could catch the ball as four 100% try scoring opportunities were squandered.

Man of the Match is a difficult one this week………….(this is me thinking)…….…….I think Ben Ward can have it for everything I said earlier in the match report.

Next Sat is our final league game of the season. We have a coach that is leaving the Manor at 11:00 so don’t be late and the after match dress code will be Hawiian.

Oh I nearly forgot…”HELLO FRANNY’S MUM!!” Word on the street is that she enjoys reading my match reports from sunny South Africa