Match report by Rob Bevington

We arrived at the local primary school to utilise the changing rooms, soon we would discover this was our "base camp" and we were halfway to the actual pitch. Glove and Flora were a little shaky at being so close to a school on one of their 232 days off each year. The first positive note was the sheer numbers of players who had turned up for our first game of the season, over 20 primed and honed athletes, a large increase on the normal 12-14 players we usually end up trying to shuffle.

We arrived at the local primary school to utilise the changing rooms, soon we would discover this was our "base camp" and we were halfway to the actual pitch. Glove and Flora were a little shaky at being so close to a school on one of their 232 days off each year. The first positive note was the sheer numbers of players who had turned up for our first game of the season, over 20 primed and honed athletes, a large increase on the normal 12-14 players we usually end up trying to shuffle.

From the off the 'Gades took the game to Potton, receiving the ball in the middle of the forwards and driving up field with great support from the rest of the pack. This was to become the pattern of the game, except with one big difference from last season....we passed the ball out to the backs! Controversial! It was not long before the pressure we were exerting started to pay dividends. With Ren really making a nuisance of himself, as only he can, we were winning ball back from them on the odd occasion we lost it. Darey had really packed his bag well before setting off for the match putting in both his running boots AND his kicking boots, not to mention his tackling gloves! He got us off the mark with a penalty after about 5 minutes. After this, we did not look back for the first half. Every tackle was made and bodies put in the way of their players. We even managed to improve on that one area where we normally fall short, the first 2 players after the tackle went to clear the opposition away rather than stand on the fringes looking at the ball until one of the oppo picked it up! This I feel was the key to our success. We had success on their line-out, probably because we had none on ours due to my unbelievably bad throw-ins...it's much easier in practice when there is no opposition!

We increased our lead steadily throughout the first half with tries from Colin and Ren (with a hat-trick from Rob Bev!). A couple of conversions added meant we ended the half with a solid lead of 20-0. Our well practised move from the lineout, with the number 8 running from the back to the front to collect in space and charge through the gap to try glory worked brilliantly! It was then we were told it was illegal and 2 hours of training on special moves went out of the window! Shawnton was terrifying, even to watch, marauding through their back line dragging anyone who attempted to tackle him along with him for the ride. We were to find out how terrifying when he came off to be subbed and then went almost straight back on for the opposition to start running at us! Ben played second row, just so we could show the backs how difficult it was to play in the pack and lasted 15 minutes before having to come off with a mere scratch to save his embarrassment (Admittedly, it needed a little bit of treatment afterwards to stem the blood and reattach the artery in his eye brow!)

The second half started off with similar energy to the first. A couple of substitutions meant we were fresh and everyone was trying their hardest to ensure they did their best to impress and get themselves a starting position in next week's game. The highlights were a try saving tackle from Bill Bob on our right wing, the distraction of the hankie not necessary for him to fell their winger and put him into touch. Matt Turner came on to show his speed and agility and after a great move involving strong driving from the pack and ball retention that the 'Gades have not recently been used to, it was passed out to the wing through the backs AND forwards who were keeping out of the rucks/mauls to provide protection and power, to Matt on the wing who skipped past 2 or 3 of their players to cross the line....and then decided to try to skip past them again to get under the posts! Also, most notable was the break from Glove who found himself with only one man to beat and an unbelievable 3-man overlap including Flora shuffling up the line outside him, but instead of passing a simple ball out for Flora's Zimmer-framed glory run to a try he opted to "hoof" it down field and play the game of chance...a game he unbelievably lost! Ren had his obligatory face-off with the opposition after a ballerina jump into the player clearing the ball from their dead-ball zone. The only negative was the lost chance to keep a clean sheet when they scored, beating our strong defence for the only time in the match.

It was a fantastic performance, played with passion and conviction, but mostly played with our brains. We were thinking about our game and what we were trying to achieve rather than just picking up the ball and running with it or throwing it aimlessly back towards where our players should be. It all bodes well for the rest of the season and with the numbers up on last season, it should make competition for places strong and ensure we all get to enjoy the game knowing we have enough players to put a team out and even have a sub waiting in the wings.

"I remember a well worked line out move OK’d with our RFU representative being called up as a load of bollocks by a nice welsh ref – some Paddington bear hard stares at a spherical object. No one lifting me despite my heroic efforts to jump (Dangerous Cowley and was it Colin trying not to lift me? I’m not that heavy boys), our line out being an awesome ball winning machine despite some god awful throwing in.

Minor handbags between Ren and the opposition and Glove and the opposition, I got a hair out of place from rucking a midget with a sharp head out of the way and being sent from the pitch by the referee to correct a misaligned hair by the referee (I’m too pretty for second row). Shawnton carrying the entire opposition and not slowing down. Boy band Matt after crossing the opposition line asking for directions to the posts. Will had an awesome game, Glove shunning the overlap and the speed and guile of our oldest winger Flora and Ren lurking in a Sam vail type position and opting to kick (we should have a training session kicking so we can get it out of our system and not do it in the match)." Ben Suttonl

Try

Ritz 1
Will 1
Ren 1
Matt Turner 1

Penalty

Daray 1

Conversion

Drop Goal

Nominations