Manor lose in close semi final

After a best ever finish of 4th in the league Manor found themselves with a road trip to league champions for the 2nd year running, Westcliff. Manor 3’s have played Westcliff 3’s 4 times in the last couple of seasons and have yet to beat the powerful Southend club.

Into the team returned powerful backrow forward Angelo, new prop Josh and returning after missing the last couple of games, the ever grumpy Rhys. In the backs last minute withdrawals of 4 players resulted in a very shuffled backline which included 4 forwards (one of whom was a prop…He does know how to sidestep so he’s not a proper prop!) and a first game for young young Ciaran at 10.

Manor arrived nice and early despite some of the younger drivers getting confused. Tomcat decided it would be quicker to sit in traffic on the A12 (I think he learnt this trick from cushy) and David Ridewood for some unknown reason to anyone went to Braintree. The future is in bright hands…Just don’t let them navigate to rugby matches.

Manor went through their warm up and as they got ready to kick off the size of the task in front of them dawned on the team. Only having a total squad of 15 players (actually 14 as David was still en-route from Braintree!) and facing a big powerful Westcliff side, Manor knew that this could be a long day at the office but were definitely ready for the challenge. Manor played some good phases after a good drop out by Bobby before they won a penalty 5 metres out. By the time Werner got to the ball and caught his breath he had devised a simple but effective plan. Give the ball to the youngest but also biggest member of the team, Elton, to run at the smallest guy in their team. For some reason Westcliff didn’t seem to notice and the skinny Westcliff 10 was given the task of marking him. Unsurprisingly when Elton got the ball he shrugged off the 10 and then carried a few other would be tacklers over the line to score the opening try. Bobby converted and Manor was in the lead 7-0.

Manor continued to play some good rugby and big carries from Francois, Bobby, Angelo and Tomcat created more good field position. Westcliff then made some very early changes to freshen up their team after 20 minutes (they really should have started these guys…they were quite good *cough cough*). Suddenly Westcliff’s new inside centre seemed to stop all of Manor’s attacks and some good carries from the

Westcliff forwards resulted in a simple try for the hosts. A few minutes later and a missed tackle from Manor resulted in Westcliff once again threatening manor’s 22 but superb defence stopped them making more ground, however, the referee blew his whistle for an apparent high tackle somewhere in the build-up from where the 10 converted it for 3 points.

Westcliff 10-7 Manor which was also the half-time score .Manor knew the second half would be hard with no subs and the wind against us. Westcliff started the stronger and immediately looked like the scored but were brought back rightly for a forward pass. Manor knew this was a warning, however, a few minutes later Westcliff benefited from a very dodgy (forward) pass and had a lucky bounce and they scored their second try. Manor continued not to give in but Westcliff picked up another score after some brave defence from Manor. Manor kept on fighting and as the game grew on Manor started to play better and better led by the charging due of Angelo, Franny and Tomcat.

Sadly manor couldn’t convert their territory and procession into points and Westcliff ended up the winners. Manor fought to the end and will come away feeling proud of their efforts. Throughout the game many players went down from the big hits and many of the Westcliff boys went off for breaks. Manor sadly did not have this luxury and many of the team had to push on despite injuries. Westcliff were the better team on the day and thoroughly deserve their place in the final.

Final score Westcliff 3’s 22-7 Manor 3’s

Good performances were numerous with everyone playing well but mentions should go to: Tomcat for his ridiculously high tackle count, Franny who caused the opposition many problems as always, Ciaran playing his first 3rd team game at 10 and doing well, Angelo for being his usual gnarly self plus Bobby and Luke for forming the unlikeliest of centre partnerships but to the untrained eye looked like they had both played there all season.

Humorous moments included; Elton mixing up shirts and “accidently” trying on the number 9 shirt (it’s now XL!), Tomcat spending most of the game giving running commentary on the Westcliff number 8’s

performance, the Westcliff flanker who thought he had scored a cracker of a try in the corner, celebrating and screaming “what a try” before the ref quite rightly told him he was out and then also Rhys’s face when he found out he had to play hooker! Werner also played a whole 80 minutes to everyone’s surprise (but he had no choice!)

Non-useful stats from the game.

Paul Porter gym count this week - 5

Bobby moaning at people - 28

Cushy being angry-1 (even though he wasn't playing for us)

Werner not making it to the ruck in time to pass the ball - 5

Angelo having a friendly chat with the opposition - 2

Rhys moaning at the ref - 1

Myself getting injured - 0

Franny ‘covering’ the full back position (when he has run out of breath) - 3

Sadly this was the last game of the season for manor 3s. It’s been another great season and a pleasure to skipper the team. Many thanks to Werner and Andy Butler for assisting in running the team.