Woodford 22 - Eton Manor 10

This week it was a trip to our local rivals Woodford so we knew we would be in for a battle but not to the intensity and with the mobility we got, especially after seeing that they were hammered at the hands of Barking 2s last week!

Firstly the Manor were without a few first choices in certain positions due to injury, Barney got called to the 1s and Captain Cush and Riaan unavailable. Though these important players were missing the biggest lost was the presence of the hallowed lucky underpants as Cush had decided to take them for a cultural tour of Barcelona.

Secondly this was a completely different Woodford 2s team that we had beat In the BL league cup semi final last year in a blizzard, Woodford were without a few recognisable regulars and seemed to have emptied a posh uni somewhere, with a entire back line of lads called Rupert.

Fired up for game with the final words by proxy from captain Cush{or was it the underpants} “dont lose to those B******S” we run out under the command of the experienced Davy Hanna who decide he was better at rugby than golf this week .

From kick off the biggest problem Manor faced was the breakdown , Woodford were young, fit and organised hitting every breakdown quickly in pods and either sealing off the ball not on their feet or coming in at the side once they realised they weren’t getting pinged by the ref.

It wasn’t long before the first few scrums and they started an even affair with Manor solid on their ball despite a bit of boring in from the Woodford tight head much to our hooker Welsh Joe's anger and the ambivalence of the ref.

The play ping ponged between both teams 22's with some great runs by the Manor from Jack Sullivan, Davy H in the forwards and Martin Boshoff , Lawrence Donaldson and Harry T in the backs, however every time Manor made good ground at some point we were turned over or slowed down by Woodford's pack.

Manor failed to adapt to Woodford's tactics and the pace of the game especially with many forwards hanging off rucks rather than smashing in or using our brains to clear the opposition out, Manor simply lacked aggression and hunger that we had displayed against Barking and Colchester.

Lineouts were also a problem for the Manor, the ball was rarely taken cleanly despite Davy Hanna's efforts and this was partly due to athletic , lithe jumpers employed by Woodford and probably not helped that Welsh Joe being concussed!

Eventually Manor got the upper hand in the scrums with Colin the Woodford tight head going off with a groin strain after a wheeled a scrum under pressure though this was not before their hooker had pinched a couple against the head. Fair play to Woodford their hooker took one for team and went into tight head and their skip going to hooker rather than go uncontested.

For Woodford they had some good runs from their Italian prop, second row Alfie and 'Pinky' their pink scrum hatted skipper but the Manor ended up smashing them back with some big tackles from Ben Ward and Jack Sullivan .

As the first half continued the basic difference between the teams was that Woodford's dominance at the breakdown meant they capitalised on most of their visits to the Manor 22 with a try in the corner from their winger 'Rupert' and a push over from the lineout .

Manors reply was a rare , successful penalty from the breakdown kicked by Brad and Jack Sullivan crashing over from close range to score on his début for Manor against his old club, after a period of scrum dominance in the Woodford 22.

The second half inspired by Jack Sullivan’s try and wise words from the Jedi and his note pad the Manor came out fighting and started to hit the breakdowns with more aggression making some good ground.

Manor found themselves camped on the Woodford's try line with an attacking scrum. Several times the Manor scrum drove forward only for Woodford to collapse and at one point the Woodford tight head was dangling a foot up in the air yet no penalty! Yet another reset scrum and a Manor drive forward and Jack was forced to pick up as the ball popped out and crashed forward which was yet again turned over.

Manor it seemed spent a lot of energy with several concerted attacks on the Woodford line yet all the attacks fizzled with turnovers and Woodford growing in confidence launched counter attacks up field.

After this good period of play for the Manor the game degenerated into the battle of breakdown , clearly Manor were fatigued at the pace of game and Woodford had now comprehensively won the battle.

Woodford had a large bench which played a part because they managed to replace injured 9 , 13 , 3 and brought on fresh back row players and they even started bringing reserves from the third team game on the bottom pitch!

Manors limited bench saw Reece, Sam, and Big Chris come on to bring some fresh legs and to give Hooker Joe a sit down as unfortunately the only thing he could remember at this point was he was Welsh!

The game finished with Woodford scoring twice and the final play was Captain pinky booting the ball from pitched after a turn over from a Manor attack which summed up the game really!

Next week Brentwood at home with Captain Cush back in command and the more importantly the lucky underpants back in play we should see Manor 2s back to their winning ways.

UTM

Man of match - Jointly between Jack Sullivan and Davy Hanna
try – Jack Sullivan’s
penalty, conversion - Brad