Fantastic thirds battle to big win over Westcliff

Eton Manor 3s V Westcliff 3s

The preparation to this game was a disaster. Only 2 of the 3 pitches at Eton Manor were playable so on Friday the fantastic 3rds had to look for a different ground to play at. After many phone calls and many failures the game was about to be called off, then at the last minute 2nd team guru Richard Stock used his old contacts and Loughton Rugby Club allowed us to play on their pitch.
Westcliff were informed of the venue change and the game was back on.
Now I’ve had to change venue many times before but I have never been handed the keys to a rugby club and been told “help yourself, just leave it clean and lock it up when you’re finished”. This is a what the rugby family is all about and a massive Thank You goes out to Loughton RFC.

Eton Manor were able to field a fairly strong squad with players returning from injury after the 3 week Christmas break. However Westcliff turned up with 14 players so borrowed a hooker to make a full team. In Tom Winkworth’s absence from the pitch Cushy was Captain. (Tom was a sub).
We had an interesting warm up that mainly consisted of removing dog poo and sticks from the pitch.

From the kick off Manor just looked that bit stronger in the pack and a lot stronger in the backs. The scrums were just shaded by Eton Manor with both sides winning their own lineouts. The main difference between the two teams was open play rugby. The first time the backs were given clean ball Garth Tucker (who was playing his first game in the backs instead of back row) went clean through to score. The same scenario would replay itself over and over again as Garth went clean through about 10 times and if Garth wasn’t breaking through then fly half Cushy and outside centre Brad Cotton were also causing the Westcliff backline major problems. But this would not have been possible without the work of the forwards who pushed their Christmas turkey’s to one side and bossed proceedings for the whole game.
The first try came on 10mins courtesy from the powerful No8 Franny who from a ruck on Westcliff’s 22 picked up and in his own words “I went Bam and scored”. Brad got the conversion (7 – 0)
The Manor pack were starting to dominate as the old war horse Macer Twydle was dishing out pain wherever he went. This led to quick ball for the back line who in turn put centre Garth Tucker through a hole and with his first real touch of the game was in under the posts. Brad got the conversion (14 – 0)
Manor’s third try came soon afterwards, with the two power houses Franny and Macer running either side of him fly half Cushy used all his experience to see that the Westcliff defence had put all their players into stopping the big guys, so he simply slipped through the gap and under the posts. Brad got the conversion (21 – 0)
Next onto the score sheet was flanker Riaan Shields who, after some lovely interplay between the forwards and backs found himself in some space and galloped into the corner to score. Brad missed the conversion (26 – 0)
The final try of the first half came after Hooker Johnny Keen went on a mazy run from his own 22 beating about 4 defenders and he was away and sprinting for the line…..then he got slower……and slower…..and when it looked as though the Westcliff fullback would stop the try Keeny put in a wonderful back handed off load to winger Martin Bashoff who just had enough pace to beat the fullback into the corner. Brad missed the conversion (31 – 0)

Changes were made to give everyone a game in this one sided match. Tony Armstrong pulled a hamstring again and was replaced by young Henry. All bets are now off regarding Tony not playing a full game this season as this now looks a certainty. Also Tom Winkworth came on and took over captaincy from the amazingly good looking Cushy.
At the half time talk we spoke about keeping the pressure on Westcliff and to get on the score board first and that’s exactly what we did.

The second half kicked off and after one ruck the ball was passed to Riaan Shields who used all his South African strength to launch himself off my ankle bone and beat three would be tacklers to score under the posts. I only know this because this is what I have been told, sadly I was rolling on the floor in pain when he scored. Brad got the conversion (38 – 0)
Macer then when on to upset the referee at a breakdown and earned himself a yellow card. It did look odd when this 20 year old 5ft 7in ref reprimanded 20 stone, 6ft 4in brick out house Macer. We quickly ushered Macer away before he ate the ref for dinner.
With both our Lineout options off the pitch we started to tap and go a bit more, with this in mind Franny tapped and went straight through the Westcliff defence to score Manor’s seventh try. Brad got the conversion (45 – 0)
Shortly afterwards Garth made his 100th (I exaggerate) line break of the game and with captain Winky outside him he did what all good forwards do and beat the fullback to score under the posts.
Brad got the conversion (52 – 0)
Manor were in total control of the game now and this became clear when we turned around after Garth's try to see that a flock of seagulls had landed on our half of the pitch. Even though Westcliff battled hard they never really looked like scoring against Manor’s organised defence.
After a turnover by Captain Winky at a ruck the ball was quickly shipped out to the backs who had a 2 man overlap out wide, but Cushy just straightened up and went in under the posts without a finger being laid on him. Yes, I missed the conversion from under the posts. (57 – 0)
Manor’s 10th and final try came from young winger Billy Morris which was no more than he deserved after coming on as a sub and totally tormenting his opposite number. He nearly killed the poor lad in defenced and boshed him to the ground every time he had the ball. Billy got the ball in our 22, he ran straight over the now petrified Westcliff winger, then went on to Bosh two more defenders before breaking clear to score a wonderful individual try under the posts. Brad got the conversion (64 – 0)
The last 5 minutes saw Manor give away needless penalties which allowed Westcliff to kick the ball to within striking distance of our try line. They were camped on our try line using their pick and go game when Macer lent in and nicked the ball, the forwards secured the ball and presented it to scrum half Tharbish to end the game. But alas no, Tharbish fumbled the greasy ball behind his own try line and the Westcliff player was quickest to react and touched it down. (64 – 7).
The ref blew the final whistle after the conversion.

The final score was 64 – 7. Even though this was a big score Eton Manor have played a lot better in the past. With the team we put out and the level of opposition I think a 100 point score line was possible.
Credit to Westcliff who never stopped battling and their last second try proved that. Most teams would have cancelled with 14 players in front of that long drive but they turned up and gave it everything.
When you are a lot better than your opponents it is easy to do too much, run just that bit too for thus isolating yourself and trying that extra off load that simply wasn’t on and I believe we definitely fell foul to these area’s
That said it was nice to start 2016 off with a big win
A big well done to all the forwards who made it easy for the backs to attack. There was a lovely blend of young and old in the Manor team today and it mixed together beautifully.
My man of the match was Flanker Riaan Shields who not only scored 2, but tackled everything that moved and turned over ball at every opportunity.

Next Saturday we play Campion 2s.