Twomey To You!!

With a bacon roll the choice is simple; brown sauce every time however at Braintree they offer a sneaky option of adding an egg to the bun and hence the question; can you eat an egg with brown sauce? After some consideration the answer was, as ever, of course you can’t, it has to be ketchup. So that it is official I will also noted that a significant number of Manor parents joining me on my Sunday morning ritual.

With the first difficult decision made it was now down to business Manor U13’s verses Braintree U13’s. Manor were missing a few players, but this gave the coaches a chance to run out some of the kids who have played less matches so far this year. This strategy was rewarded also immediately. Braintree kicked off and immediately handed the ball to Manor by not kicking the ball 10 meters. After a short tussle Ben Twomey scampered through the middle of the Braintree squad, dodging a couple of tackles and soon was in open space. With the screams of encouragement from the Manor parents Ben crossed the line for his first try in a match for quite some time. The boys ran up, as they usually do, to congratulate him but then to everyone’s complete bewilderment the Braintree referee did not award the try. According to the referee our boys celebrations with Ben were ‘obscene’ and reminded him of football mentality and that this wasn’t acceptable in rugby. Everyone from Manor was gutted. Not because we weren’t awarded the try but that Ben had been denied a well earned try. There will be the official score at the end of this email but for the purposes of this report it stands as a try (Manor 5 – Braintree 0).

The boys showed immense maturity by not letting the referees decision rattle them, in fact it seemed to galvanise them together and determined to prove a point and as a tribute to Ben’s effort. Right from the restart Manor were on the attack again. It was now Anthony’s turn to take up the battle. A great run and pass by Rhys saw Anthony rampaging through their half attempted tackles and straight through to the try line. Finally Manor were awarded a well earned try and conversion (Manor 12 – Braintree 0).

Every restart by Braintree saw Manor attacking. Eventually Braintree mounted an attack via their forwards slowly but effectively trundling through the phases. This attack was bravely halted close to the Manor try line by Jack D bringing down one of the forwards with a low crunching tackle.

With Ben’s try disallowed and one try up the Manor coaches decided on a mass substitution. On came; Jack, Adam, Gabe, Waggers and Jermaine. The impact was immediate with Jack running directly at them (route 1) and straight to the try line which he also converted (Manor 19 – Braintree 0).

Manor were now gaining the upper hand and running the ball freely from anywhere. Forwards were taking running direct and the backs as allusive and fast as usual. Alex and the other forwards were putting some hard tackles in. Once again Anthony broke the Braintree line and score his second try (Manor 24 – Braintree 0).

Last play of the first half saw another strong run from Anthony, this time he had Adam on his shoulder. A beautifully placed grubber kick from Anthony saw it sweetly sit up into Adam’s hands who then , at pace, quickly crossed the try line. Jack converted the try making the score at half time Manor 31 – Braintree 0.

The start of the second half saw Adam quickly score another try, with Jack adding the conversion (Manor 38 – Braintree 0).

Eventually Braintree scored a well earned try. Working the ball hard, and keeping it alive, they eventually crossed the Manor try line. I wouldn’t like to be cynical but the referee must have been distracted and/or writing down the score as he didn’t seem to notice the jubilant celebrations from the Braintree players??? This seemed to be a point of a lengthy discussion between our hooker and the referee. Braintree didn’t manage the conversion (Manor 38 – Braintree 5).

Undaunted by the try Manor continued their usual game plan; rewarded by Adam running at pace, off loading to Simon at pace who burns up the meters and crosses the try line. Another conversion for Jack took the score to Manor 45 – Braintree 5.

The referee’s decisions were now going against Manor, there were three back to back penalties awarded to Braintree, Manor’s concentration was obviously dropping off. This gave Braintree some territorial gain, but a rip from Adam saw him run ¾ of the field and straight in under the posts unopposed. Try converted by Jack took the score to Manor 52 – Braintree 5.

Almost straight from the restart a great run from Waggers, with a final offload to Jack for Manor’s final try of the day ( Manor 57 – Braintree 5). With a clear 50 difference the referee stopped the match.

Confusion was the order of the day; the referee stopped the match after Jack’s try and recorded a score or 56- 5 to Manor. My unofficial score count was 52 – 0, but including Ben’s try was 57 – 5. All we do know is that Manor put in a great team performance.

So for moment or man of the match where do we start?
- Anthony and Jack rampaging through the tackles
- Jack D’s immense tackling
- Solid and dominating srummaging by Finn, George, Darragh and Freddie
- Max sniping and darting around
- Great interplay and running by the whole team
- Alex’s solid tackling
- Maturity shown by the team
- The sweet grubber by Anthony resulting in Adam’s try
- The defensive work of the forwards
- A brilliant line breaking runs by Charlie, Gabe, Sam, Jermaine, Rhys, San, Waggers, Simon
- If I’ve missed anyone please forgive me, I’m old and forgetful

The above was too difficult for me to decide and therefore I decided to ask one of the players, who happens to be my son, unprompted he said man of the match should be awarded to Ben Twomey. I know if I had asked any of the other players the answer would have been the same which is testament to the our boys ethos, togetherness and team mentality.

As a final note I should mention Braintree. They played well, they played fair, at times their heads appeared to go down, but they continued to battle and as hosts they were as brilliant as ever.