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Under 30s 14 - Over 30s 20

SUNDAY 27TH APRIL 2008
(Inter-club friendly)

1st half

The game started at a great pace, with first Paul Nye, then Lee Donnelly driving the ball 30 metres up field from the kick off. The Over 30's lost the ball in the ruck though, and only a forward pass by Dan Hughes to Matt Bianchini after the ball was moved quickly to the right wing prevented an overlap being exploited. The Under 30's forced mistakes by robust tackling and energy in the loose, and from a scrum on the right midfield, James Gardner showed some of his promise by running to the 5m line before being tackled. The referee awarded a penalty to the Under 30 team for an infringement at the ruck, but then quickly reversed his decision due to a stamping incident on the Over 30 captain, Andy Sheppard. All 15 under 30's were lining up to claim the offence as theirs, but Matt Williams was adamant it was him and was later bought a pint by Tony Baughan as payment. The Over 30's moved the ball up field from the penalty, and following a clean break by Murray Stewart, Eugene Griffin, fresh from his battering at the hands of the under 15's, took the ball towards the line and offloaded for Alex Webb to charge in for a try under the posts. The resulting conversion attempt by Murray Stewart was one the worst I have ever witnessed in senior rugby and it physically hurt my eyes.

The Under 30's quickly regained their composure, with the lightning quick Tim Ellis breaking through 2 tackles in midfield and heading towards the line. Murray made a fantastic covering tackle, but the referee adjudged someone to have done something naughty and a now patented Dan Hughes quick tap penalty try brought the Under 30's level and then ahead 7-5 with an Ellis conversion.

This stung the Over 30's into some fierce action, with Eugene Griffin to the fore, and only a good tackle into touch on veterans cup winner Granville Williams prevented an immediate score from the restart. The Over 30's applied pressure for the next couple of minutes and forced a scrum in the 22 from which No8 Griffin drove to within 10 metres. The resulting ruck ball was moved to the hard running Alex Webb, who offloaded to Marc Grant to finish the move, taking 2 defenders over the line with him to make the score to 10-7 to the Over 30's. The resulting missed conversion by Murray was a little better than his 1st effort, but not by much. Still not bad for an Aussie.

The last few minutes a good first half were incident laden, with Paul Nye embarking on a typical battering ram run up the centre of the pitch, but a penalty to the Under 30's at the ruck brought a response in kind from Liam Beesley, (trying desperately to match his brothers 3 tries in the lads vs dads match earlier) and following a strong break into the Over 30's half, cleverly put Tim Ellis into a gap, who then emphatically beat the cover to touch down from 40 metres out. The conversion of his own try took the score to 14-10. The Under 30's were put under extreme pressure for the remaining few phases of the half, and only a spilt pass from one of the Briggs brothers to Nelson 5 metres out with no-one to beat kept the scores the same at half time.

2nd Half

The 2nd half started slowly, understandable in the heat and with subs coming on and off, and most of the play was between the 10 metre lines. 10 minutes into the half, a good run from Granville Williams brought a scoring chance, but the decision to kick rather than pass to the 3 man overlap was welcomed by the Under 30 defence and heralded some abuse from some sections of the crowd. Some good tackling and tactical kicking from both sides kept it tight but on 60 minutes, a lineout steal at the front gave Eugene Griffin the time and space to break 40 metres down the pitch and offload to Nelson Ody, who took it on for another few metres before finding Chris Good on his shoulder. Somehow, a scrambling Under 30 defence managed to steal the ball at the ruck and clear their lines, but Griffin’s lineout work starved the Under 30's of possession for a while. Further Over 30 possession in the opposition 22 resulted in the ball coming to Mark (Buzza) Busby who attempted a cross field kick only to see the ball end up with Tom Barratt, who ran 30 metres up the touchline and found Doug Joines in support. A couple of jinks and sidesteps almost saw Dougie through, but some quick ball enabled the Unders to threaten a score briefly. The Over 30's managed to force a mistake and recycled the ball down the right hand side, with some slick hands enabling a maul to be positioned a couple of metres from the line. Some weight added to the maul got it moving and Alex Webb touched down from the maul for his 2nd try of the afternoon. Eugene Griffin may wish to take the linesman to task for the conversion not being awarded, but that took the score line to 15-14 in favour of the more mature team. The Under 30's committed themselves to attack from here, which left holes behind the ruck, fully exploited with a youthful 30 metre gallop from Lee Donnelly. Egged on by the crowd he moved smoothly through the gears whilst looking for some supporting runners. The gearbox however, blew up and he got caught before too much damage was done. Max Burbidge was in the thick of the action most of the game, and let several members of the Over 30 team know of his considerable presence in the loose during the last quarter with some bone jarring (not always on time) tackles (shoulder barges).

Some of the Over 30's looked a little jaded going into the last few minutes, including Paul Nye, who was resting amongst the daisies and long grass following his earlier exploits. This did not include Pete Midgley, who found himself covering the left wing after the play had moved to the other side of the pitch. Clever field positioning and tactical nous enabled him to position himself perfectly to tackle Barney Hughes after Barney had tried to circumnavigate him unsuccessfully. Turnover ball from the ensuing ruck enabled the Overs forwards to drive the ball on, until it was a yard from the line, when Pete timed his run perfectly to blast through and score. The conversion was about to be taken when the referee whistled for the restart of the game indicating that the 20 seconds Eugene had taken in preparing for his kick was 'too much time'. Eugene calmly kicked the conversion anyway and appealed the decision but it meant that the final play of the game was going to remain interesting. The Under 30's kicked the restart and immediately put the Overs under pressure in their 22. A penalty was awarded 7 metres out, and when Dan Hughes took another quick tap, it looked all over for the Over 30's, but a knock on with the line at his mercy ensured the score ended 20-14 to the Over 30's

All told, this was a very good game to watch, with some great individual performances. I put it all down to the coaching they have received this year.

Unders man of the match:Tim Ellis added pace every time he got the ball, scored 1 try and set up the other
Overs man of the match:Alex Webb for his 2 tries, but 4 or 5 others could easily have got it

Under 30s:

Tries: Dan Hughes, Tim Ellis
Kicks: Tim Ellis: 2 conversions

Over 30s:

Tries: Alex Webb (2), Marc Grant, Pete Midgley
Kicks: None (well, there were, but touch judge John Major decided to ignore them)

Nathan Brooks
Coach / Reporter

Click here for the teams and team pictures

Under 30s

  1. Matt Williams
  2. Liam Donnelly
  3. Tony Baughan (capt)
  4. James Stepney
  5. Luke Burbidge
  6. Liam Beesley
  7. James Gardner
  8. Max Burbidge

  9. Tim Ellis
  10. James Holburn
  11. Gareth Ellis
  12. Ricky
  13. Dan Hughes
  14. Matt Bianchini
  15. Charlie McGlashan

  16. Steve Lindsay
  17. Tom Barrett
  18. Matt Luff
  19. Tom Nicholls
  20. Tom Heydon
  21. Barney Hughes
  22. Ed Parker
  23. Chris Sawyer
Rolling subs were in effect, everyone got a game
Over 30s

  1. Nigel Worth
  2. Nelson Ody
  3. Pete Midgley
  4. Dan Porter
  5. Chris Good
  6. Eugene Griffin
  7. Brendon van der Hoek
  8. Paul Nye

  9. Ian (Swampy) Blunsden
  10. Andy Sheppard (capt)
  11. Granville Williams
  12. Alex Webb
  13. Marc Grant
  14. Sapan Parekh
  15. Murray Stewart

  16. Andy Wilkins
  17. Alec (Smudger) Smith
  18. Lee Donnelly
  19. Mark Wittet
  20. Dave Briggs
  21. Steve Briggs
  22. Rick Benito
Rolling subs were in effect, everyone got a game