Fixtures and Results

Fixtures Update...

OSTERLEY (6) v Sudbury and London Springboks (20)

WHAT A FRUSTRATING GAME !!

We had a good side out. But was just missing some key players in the lineouts and no substitutes available.

Frustratingly the game didn't Kick off at 2.30pm as planned. At 3.15pm their players eventually arrived and we were able to kick off. With the Sun low and in our faces for the last 40 minutes of daylight it was going to be tough. The sun eventually went out of sight at 4pm and it was clearly going to be a health and safety issue as to whether we could play 40 minutes each way. I felt we couldn't and expressed my concern to both the ref and their captain.

From the kick off Osterley played brilliantly getting right in their faces. Some fantastic tackling against a side that thought they were much better than they are. They had about three players that were reasonable and they only had a little bit of pace in their backs. But on the whole Osterley undoubtedly played the better rugby. There was some good rucks that we turned over. Jerry playing a great game at scrum half. The defence in our backs and from the forwards getting around the pitch covering across the field for any attack made; there just didn't seem to be any way through for the Boks. But about 30 mins into the game the first try went to the Boks.

Guy Freeman and John Scannell later kicked a penalty each to give us the Six points.

We should have had tries in the first and second half, but we only ever made it to within 5 metres of their line each time. Losing too many lineouts and missing that final offload for the break through it was frustrating to say the least.

After 60 minutes of play we were in the lead 6 points to 5. But with the MOON (yes ....the moon) in sight it was getting ridiculous. This was pointed out again to the ref who continued play. This led to the referee missing a key point in the game where the boks had hands in the rucks that they scored off. Osterley's heads went down for the next 15 minutes with a lack of talking to create the defensive line and the Boks scored further tries in each corner. Midway through the second half the Boks got punchy with frustration, wanting to fight instead of play rugby. A final fight back at the end in the dark by Osterley nearly gave us a try.
Everybody played out of their skins. WELL DONE ALL.

It was great to see Simon 'Fragile' Couch back in the line up after his rib injury. Three Wynn-Jones' fielded at the same time, Tom, William and Owen . First appearences were from Owen W-J and Patrick Norman (flanker). Everyone had great game.