It was a brisk albeit bright Saturday afternoon for the second run out of the season, and first away fixture. It had been a long 4 weeks since our triumphant return to Tolworth Arms Park, and the lads were chomping at the bit to get back on the park.
After some morning dropouts, the boys did some team reshuffling with scrum half, fly half and hooker. SD RFC had our usual great crowd of spectators down to support us. Post warm up our in a rush Irish referee blew the whistle and off we went.
All going well for the first few minutes, some solid defence required of us… it was clear that the forwards were in for a very physical game, after a couple of loose tackles their outside centre slides through a gap to score the first try of the match.
After a solid restart kick from Woody the ball is caught, Old Sutts start running it down the outside channel. With a lot of momentum built up Niall our 10 for the day tackles what can only be described as a fridge of a man, with nothing but his collar bone. The tackle was heard all round the field and wider Sutton, with Niall putting the Samsung Series 6 SpaceMax™ to the ground it was clear something was wrong. The tackle caused a break in his collarbone bigger than Harry and Meghan are having, causing an end to his season.
With some more shuffling needed, we saw Daniel G. begrudgingly move to 10, Potter to 15 and CSSC Oli making an early appearance at 13.
The defensive pressure and sheer line speed from Decca had the opposition flustered. The fly half looking around realised he was out of options and went to put boot to ball, but it was too late. Ricky Ross was breathing down his neck ready to match Niall’s heroic collision. He instead read the play brilliantly, reacting out an arm to charge down. The ball went back and popped up beautifully into Ross’ arms as he continued his charge up the field. 80 meters quickly faded to 60, and then 40 as the defence struggled back into position. Ross was looking for options with nobody quite able to keep up. Suddenly an Obi wan esque shout came from the touchline… “Head down!”. It was Matt T. from the Decca high council. The young padawan did as his master suggested… Head down and used the force, breaking a tackle, buying his reinforcements enough time to support the attack.
The remaining of the first half was a large defensive effort from the Decca boys, the scrum looking very solid with the driving force of Sean and Tokyo Alan in the second row and all the forwards putting in a great shift defensively and creating more pods than Nespresso on Black Friday. After yet another few miss tackles and some silky running from Old Sutts another 3 tries were scored.
The first half came to a positive end with Ben T. fighting to get over the line after some successful forward movement to get us on the score sheet before halftime.
The boys huddle and discuss features of the game that we can improve on and some swapping of bodies, Stroudy and Reland take to the pitch. Only the lord knows what was in those Albanian imported Haribos Reland handed out to the team, but the moment the whistle blew for the start of the second half we were met with a reignited Surbiton Decca RFC.
The second half started with some great ground made by more forward pods, Tokyo Alan, Richard, Ben T. and Chichester Jake had bodies flying every which way, with the encouraging screams of our 9 George K. expressing phrases such as “fudging ruck you Cnuts” (presumably after the 11th Century English king, a comparison of great respect and deference).
A Scrum near the oppositions 10-meter line, beautifully won and held up by the scrummaging work of Eduardo, Woody and Tom M, who by this point had scrummaged against 5 different props (taking multiple men on isn’t new for either of them). Tokyo Alan at 8 breaks off with the ball towards to white line, dragged down by 3 of Old Sutts forwards, gets a lovely pop pass to Ben T. who powers over the line for our second try of the game.
Some minutes go by and after the forwards had gotten us into a great space, Daniel G. received the ball and passed out wide to Potter who found himself in some space near the 22. Head down the boy who lived ran straight towards the try line, Chariots of Fire playing in his ears. As he leaped over the line, the oppositions 12, possessed by the spirit of Henry VIII himself decided to attempt to decapitate Potter in his second game back after 5 years. What was surely a penalty try was explained by the ref as “no foul play” as Potters head slowly roles down the hill.
After the opposition No. 9 shows some great individual effort and slipping through tackles old sutts get another 7 points on the board.
Once Daniel G. was finished flirting with the oppositions No 10 him and Ricky Ross displayed some great practiced set piece work off the back of a scrum in the form of a looping 10 pass, CSSC Oli gets ball in hand and makes some great yards, with Chichester Jake also stepping into the back line, ploughing through unsuspecting backs. Eduardo after 60+ minutes of propping put in a thunderous hit on the oppositions fly half that left him curled up on the ground like a quaver. After a few phases the ball finds its way back to young Goldsack who chips it over two defenders, catches it and makes some more valuable yards. After some further forward momentum to get us to the opposition try line, the score is secured by who else than Ben T. giving him a hat-trick.
Determined to get more points on the score sheet after head contact-gate, Woody finds himself in the middle of the pitch, ball in hand after the restart, he locks on to Molly in the distance for the first time in years. Boot to ball, Woodys Crossfield kick lands perfectly in the hands of Molly as if it was his own flesh and blood. Molly runs the remaining yards untouched and gets the ball down for our fourth score of the game, beautifully converted by Woody.
After some more back and forth with the opposition, the old Sutts Samsung fridge from before once again finds himself running down the wing towards CSSC JJ, who after witnessing Niall’s one on one from earlier, found himself with a tight hamstring and took a knee (who can blame him). The Old Suttonian ran round him to score their final points of the game.
For the final 10 minutes off the game Surbiton Decca were gifted a sub from Old Sutts. Alex, a hotstepping (murderer) fly half who from the moment he came on displayed great running ability, weaving in and around the defence, also securing our last try of the game.
Woody’s trusty left peg which up till this point had been excellent, with a hat-trick of conversions and the successful Crossfield kick, ignoring the penalty punt for the corner going dead in first half and a second half kick-off straying wide into touch. Woody saw an opportunity in the final moments of the match for a dramatic finish to our competitive score line, in the form of a drop goal attempt, which despite a great line just came up short (a lifetime first we’re assured) the final whilst was blown after a few more rucks centre court. With the final score:
46-33 to Old Suttonians.
Scores:
Benny T. x 3
Molski
Old Sutts Alex
Conversions:
Woody x 4
Team sheet:
1 Eduardo
2 Woody
3 Tom M.
4 Sean
5 Tokyo Al
6 Richard
7 Chichester Jake
8 Benny T.
9 George K.
10 Niall
11 Molski
12 Ricky Ross
13 Potter
14 CSSC take a knee JJ
15 Daniel G.
Subs:
•Reland
•Stroudy
•CSSC Oli
•Old sutts Alex