Manor two's have a Happy New Year

The first game of 2013 was upon us.

I thought I would have lots of players to choose from after the 2 week Christmas break and would be able to put out a really strong team, well I was wrong. The reality was that I was still picking the team on Friday night and Saturday morning as the injury ridden 1st team promoted 4 players into their squad and other players were away for all different reasons. Three players were promoted from the 3rd team and after making a thousand phone calls we had a team.
Actually once the team had been finalised on paper it didn’t look too bad

After 2 weeks of rain the pitches at the Manor were unplayable so the decision was made to play the game at Thurrock’s ground instead as they clearly have better drainage on their pitches.
We were told by Thurrock’s grounds man that we would be on the furthest pitch, once we stepped onto the pitch I was very please indeed. To my amazement the ground was fairly firm and not too muddy.
At last our young quick team had a firm pitch to play on again.

The early forward exchanges were fairly even with Thurrock’s large pack having a decent lineout but Manor having the advantage in the scrum and the loose, but the clear difference in the two teams was the back lines. Even though Thurrock had two quick wingers Eton Manor’s back three hammered them every time they got the ball.
In the first 10 minutes Manor had made their intentions clear by making some clean breaks from all area’s of the pitch but surprisingly the best chance fell to Thurrock when they spun the ball wide and found a player in acres of space just outside our 22. With the line at his mercy Brad Cotton came out of nowhere to slam him into touch when he was odds on to score. Disaster averted.

Eton Manor were full of confidence on the firm pitch and chose to run the ball whenever the overlap was on catching Thurrock napping time and time again, this was how the first try was scored. From a scrum deep inside our 22 the ball was spun quickly to outside centre Cushy who drew his man and put new fullback Ben through a hole. Ben drew his man and put Connor away on the wing, Connor flew down the wing drew the fullback and passed it back inside to Ben who ran it under the posts. A cracking try. Brad got the conversion (7 – 0).

Soon afterwards the ball was spun through the back line again; a half break was made by Cushy who in turn set off the rampaging Jumbo along the wing. He beat 2 players then threw the ball back infield as he was getting shoved into touch. The ball landed in flanker Gav’s hands and he must have thought he was in but a strong tackle stopped him in his tracks but Fly half Brad was on hand to take the final pop as Thurrock ran out of defenders and he was under the posts. Brad converted his own try. (14 – 0)

The third try came when a backs move opened a hole for that aging handsome virile centre Cushy who shot through the hole and surprisingly outpaced the covering defenders to go in uncontested under the posts. Brad got the Conversion. (21 – 0)

To be honest Eton Manor made so many breaks that it has all blended into one and I’ll be buggered if I can remember how fullback Ben got his second try but I know that he did (cause he told me so!!!). Brad missed the conversion. (26 – 0)

With 5 minutes left of the first half inside centre George went off his feet at a ruck and the extremely strict referee yellow carded him. The final 5 minutes were played with no lasting memories and the half time whistle was blown. Half time score was Thurrock Nil Eton Manor 26.

The second half started with Eton Manor looking dangerous every time their backs got the ball in space even though they were a player down. One minute before George’s yellow card was over Gav put in his third high tackle of the game and was quite rightly yellow carded too. Having his first game back since getting injured on the first warm up game of the season had obviously got the better of him. Manor were now down to 13 players… well for one minute anyway. It was at this stage that the increasingly irate ref harshly sin binned a Thurrock player for killing the ball, so we were now down to 14 players each.

With the numbers even Manor made their way to Thurrock’s 22. Up charged 42 year old Sean Bradley, who at full tilt is a scary site. He took a pop pass from Brad and just swept aside four Thurrock defenders to score under the posts for Manor’s fifth try. The look on the Thurrock defenders faces said it all as Sean was running towards them..”Sod that” comes to mind. Brad got the conversion (33 – 0)

With both teams back up to full strength Thurrock upped their game and with the help of the referee’s whistle laid siege to the Eton Manor line with their big forwards charging onto the ball, but the tackles kept on coming our line was not crossed. The forwards threw their bodies at everything that moved but it happened once to often when prop Paul was yellow carded for accidently going off his feet at a ruck and we were back to 14 players again. The scrums were now uncontested for 10 minutes as prop Ryan had gone off just before this yellow card with a jaw injury.

Even though Manor were a man down they were still in control of the game and the sixth try came courtesy of the backs running the ball from their own try line, Jumbo was away and after beating two men he was felled by the Thurrock fullback but he offloaded nicely to fullback Ben to score his third try of the game. Brad got the conversion (40 – 0)

With one minute left of Pauls yellow card Chris Vickers didn’t let a loan Thurrock player to his feet and was also yellow carded by the ref who was quite possibly the angriest man in the world. At least both sets of players were able to laugh at it/him. So we were back down to 13 players with 5 minutes left to play. It didn’t matter though because as soon as the backs got the ball they broke through and put second team debutant Billy away in the corner for our seventh try. Brad missed the difficult conversion. (45 – 0)

The last 5 minutes ebbed away and it was over.

Thurrock Nil Eton Manor 45, the disaster of losing to Woodford was soon forgotten and we were all smiles again.

Well done to all who played, Man of the match was fullback Ben who bagged himself a hatrick on his debut for the second team. Also thank you to the three third team players who stepped up when needed, two of the three actually scored.

Next game is at home against South Woodham Ferrers. 14:15KO