Chingford Vs Eton Manor

They weather on Saturday was cold but pleasant enough and the Manor spirits were high after 5 league wins in a row.
Upon arrival I was immediately informed by the Chingford captain that the ref had been called away to a family emergency so they were trying to find someone from Chingford rugby club brave enough to don the whistle, I was also informed that due to injuries within the club they couldn’t field a front row. In the end they found a poor soul silly enough to agree to ref for the first time and the game was on.
The look on our front rows faces was a picture when they heard the news that we would be playing the whole game with uncontested scrums. As a team we promised to leave any dodgy decisions by the first time ref alone and just be grateful that he was willing to ref the game. So after a long walk to their 2nd team pitch (where half the team took a wrong turn and got lost, never follow Ryan McEnvoy) we were ready to play.
I won the coin toss and decided to play into a small breeze with the low sun to our backs. What a bloody mistake that was! After 2 minutes of play a massive black cloud floated by and stopped on top of us. Now the sun had gone and we were left playing into a strong wind and rain in our faces.
Chingford playing with the conditions started strongly running hard and tackling even harder. Eton Manor were finding it hard to get out of our own 22 as the rain made running rugby hard and the strong wind made kicking pointless (one such kick actually caught the wind and landed behind us). After 15 minutes of defending inside our 22 and clearly against the run of play Cushy finally made a small break, he off loaded in the tackle to Conner who went on a mazy run into Chingford’s half, he again off loaded to the supporting Jack White who just had enough gas to tip toe along the touch line and dot down. The conversion was missed (0 – 5).
For the rest of the half Chingford had pretty much all the play, constantly attacking the Manor try line, they also had three backs (9, 10 & 15) that were kicking to a very high standard and punished Manor’s every mistake as they kicked the ball 10ft from our try line time and time again but the defence from these young guns was outstanding and the wall of blue refused to be breached. So after defending for a good 35mins of the first half we went into half time leading 5 nil. Chingford must have been wondering what it was going to take to break this defence down but we don’t have the best defence in the league for nothing. At the break while Cushy had a word with the ref about the Chingford backs living offside and the very hard hitting but often shoulder barging no.8 the Manor team patched themselves up and got ready to play with the elements. Our props Ryan McEnvoy and Chris Hurry were swopped for the back row subs of Cofe and Franny and George Cast also came on. At this point the black cloud buggered off, the rain stopped and the wind eased off slightly much to our dismay.
The second half was a very different game with Chingford struggling to kick into the wind. This killed their game as I don’t think the Manor line was breached once all game (I may be wrong). Now it was Manor’s turn to pressure the Chingford line, Cofe made an immediate difference with his strapping 5ft 5in frame breaking clean twice in the first 5 minutes. Now that the rain had stopped the passes began to stick and the Manor backs were beginning to ask questions of the Chingford defence. 10 minutes into the second half that handsome man Cushy spotted a gap, straightened the line, broke through a would be tackler and coasted under the posts for Manors 2nd try. Jack added the conversion (0 – 12).
This seemed to take the wind out of Chingford’s sails and Manor was now looking the better side. Manor was also helped when a double tackle on Cushy meant that both Chingford players were led from the field with head injuries. Next to cross the line was Manor’s man of the match Conner, who bashed and jinked his way through Chingford’s tiring defence. The conversion was missed (0 – 17).
Conner was having an excellent game in attack and constantly broke the Chingford defence with his strong runs and it was one of these runs that got him over the Chingford try line again breaking 2 or 3 tackles in the process. Jack added the conversion (0 – 24).
With 8 minutes left six stone soaking wet scrumhalf Tarvish was spear tackled very badly, a red card would have been shown under normal circumstances but the new referee informed us that he hadn’t seen it…so yellow carded the offending tackler instead. (work that out for yourselves as we couldn’t)
Manor now playing with an extra man had all the play and it was no.8 Franny that scored Manor’s final try with a well timed run through the centres swotting away any defenders like flies. Jack added the conversion (0 – 31)
Eton Manor saw out the remainder of the match in the Chingford half and the game ended 31 nil. A good score in horrible conditions!

Chingford have a decent side and played to a standard that bellied the low league position, their appetite to tackle was apparent for the whole 80 minutes and their desire to win never wavered, but once Eton Manor had made it through the wind and rain the 2nd half was a more dominant affair and the better side won on the day.

I personally think that having no official referee and uncontested scrums played into Chingford’s hands and had these things been in place a bigger score line would have been on the cards. A red card would definitely have been shown for the spear tackle, the shoulder barging no.8 would have seen yellow early on and probably stopped shoulder barging and the off side rule would have been policed better. But saying all this we are very grateful to the replacement referee as without him the game would not have been played in the first place and we hope the original referee’s emergency was not too serious.

Next week is a top of the table clash against Westcliff. Both teams have played 6 and won 6 so someone’s run will have to come to an end, let’s hope it’s theirs.

I know the 1st and 3rd teams are away so any support would be appreciated.