What a day, what a season end…!

The final day of the season, a cup final, the chance to win some silverware and the only team in the league that 1871 had not beaten.  What’s not to love to finish the season in style?  It was a day to have it all.

There were the inevitable background shenanigans that furrowed many a brow in the 24hrs prior, but which also helped to spark a fire in blood and after the team talk, these should forever be behind closed doors, the warm-up had some really good intent behind it, then the second team talk, which made the point, the player came out ready for battle.

From the first carry and collision, by Dave Francis (8) the wrecking ball (who sat down so many players during the day, that London Sottish needed to double and triple tackle to stop him), the stall by 1871 was laid out and London Scottish knew that the determination and hunger from 1871 was front and centre and that they had a lot of work to do to try and stop it.  1871 were relentless scoring after 10 minutes by Kayci Bernard (12) and then again after 14 minutes by Joe Blackmore (15) from his chase of the kick ahead from Alex Tarrant (11), despite having had no real right to be able to do score.  The score of the day.  Harrison Slater (10) (VC) taking the extras.  3 minutes later, Dave Francis crossed the try line to score and Harrison Slater again converted the extras.

At 24 minutes, London Scottish took advantage of a penalty and got themselves on the scoreboard, but 5 minutes later Alex Tarrant got himself across the try line and re-enforced the 1871 lead, with Harrison Slater again dissecting the uprights for the extras.

It took only 8 minutes, of the second half starting for 1871 to continue on the scoreboard, with Dave France again crossing the try line and for Harrison Slater to again take the extra points.  8 minutes later, Adrian Coa (19) scored after holding his width well, then to get his hat-trick, Dave Francis put in another hard carry, casting aside London Scottish players and touching the ball down over the line.  So much power!  By now it was evident that tiredness was seeping in across the board for 1871, as the penalty count took an upward trajectory in a short space of time and allowed London Scottish to salvage something on the scoreboard with two converted tries at 25 minutes and 30 minutes.  However, this was too little, too late and if it was a league match they would not even had earned a bonus point.

This result means that despite the fractured performance pre-Christmas, 1871 2^nd XV have now beaten everyone in the league and have come away with the final spoils.

A fantastic end to the 1871 2^nd XV season and this bodes very well for next season.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who lent their support on the touchline yesterday, from across the club and a massive well done to the whole squad for what you have done throughout the season and how you all really stepped up, from game 1, gathered yourselves after Christmas and pushed yourselves through to the last game, to finish on such a high.

Finally, a massive thank you to Millie Watts (our physio) who has covered an inordinate amount of metres between our pitches, in all weathers, helping put many of the 1871 players (across all teams) back on the pitch throughout the season and always with a smile.