3rd XV
Matches
Sat 17 Oct 2009
Basildon 3rd XV
12
29
Eton Manor RFC
3rd XV
Match Report - Basildon V Eton Manor

Match Report - Basildon V Eton Manor

Ian Lovett21 Oct 2009 - 12:55
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Report by Matt Evans

The Manor III's had some excellent news in that Gary Davies was struck down with sciatica walking to the clubhouse prior to kick-off. As anyone who has had it knows how horribly painful it is and the outpouring of sympathy for him was colossal.

Saying that if he wasn't fit enough to walk to the Manor that morning he would never have been fit enough to have made the walk to the Basildon pitches. We had to go on a country ramble from the clubhouse and then cross a duel carriage-way to make it to the paddock. Obviously some of our players got lost so we had no time to get warmed up and think about what we were doing.

The Basildon team were quite probably the biggest bunch we have come across in quite a while. They all seemed, from a distance, of Weeble dimensions so the pack in particular were going to have a battle on their hands. Nevertheless despite their size the Manor chunkies seemed to have better of them and more than held their own and were on occasions turning them 90+ degrees. Manor had all the territory in the first 20 but could not score. It was deeply frustrating. Even more annoying was that defensively their backs had no real idea and their 15 had no concept of covering back when not in possession. The deadlock was broken when the Basildon most-unlike-fly-half-in-the-world-ever lazily passed to his outside centre and Sparrow intercepted to wander over under the posts.

Against the run of play and a couple of missed tackles Basildon scored a good try from deep. Their fly-half started the move and he had the most curious style. I recall at one stage a penalty being awarded, which he tapped, and then he stood up, stayed still, and then started walking forward somehow making 25 yards before someone realized what he was up to. His second row dimensions maybe duped the defence into thinking that he was the wrong man in the wrong place and would soon pass the ball to someone who know what they were doing.

Somehow Manor failed to score any more tries in the first half. Dropped balls, forward passes and comedy penalty moves that resulted in three player colliding managed to keep the score respectable. However after the half time pep talk Manor scored straight away from the kick off. A ball was simply passed down the line, Leoung slightly delayed his pass to Tom who was able to collect the ball at pace and score under the posts from inside our half.

The try that followed was a thing of beauty. From a line out Dan dummied passes and scissors and unleashed a perfect pass to Tom who again at pace collected the ball and offloaded to a grateful Hollis. Hollis still had a bit of work to do as he was chased to the line but he rounded his man to score. If that was the move of the game then Hollis then delivered the hospital pass of the season, sadly to me, which saw me get squashed by 3 Basildon players shortly after. I write this with my knee still swollen and throbbing......

Anyway....The game, I think, turned well and truly in Manor's favour shortly after Basildon scored their second try. A penalty on the 22 saw Basildon rumble up the pitch and use their bulk to score. However from the kick-off Dan munched the opposition hooker. That seemed to inspire the Manor to raise the tempo and aggression levels. Dan then capped a fine performance by dancing through the Basildon defence for the fourth try. Welchy in particular was getting involved in some intimacy with the opposition. Even I had some handbags with a couple of players. It was speculated that Private America took a blow to the head during some of the more heated exchanges as his line-out calls were getting more surreal and peculiar by the minute. Others also commented that him going slightly barking is the result of his previously highly prestigious, privileged and elevated position as third team skipper being removed. I mean - look at Ronald Reagan he went totally loopy once he stopped being the President. It is also likely his odd ramblings at the line-out induced bafflement amongst the hookers as the line-out throws on both teams were somewhat wayward.

A Manor penalty in the last few minutes took gave us a comfortable margin.

Simon B, Greg Sears, Pete Thomas, Private America, Josh P, Ian Welch, John P, Dave ingram, Jeff B, Hibbert jr (1), Sparrow (1), Leung, Hollis (1), Rentboy, Tom (1).

Match details

Match date

Sat 17 Oct 2009

Kickoff

15:00

Meet time

13:00

Instructions

Basildon have now passed their third team pitch as playable and therefore the match will now kick off at 1500. Sorry for the confusion
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