Well that was an eventful week, aaand breathe!!

Huge thank you to all of those who stepped up to play across all three teams, particularly the university students, whose presence allowed these games to go ahead.

A sporadic warm-up on a breezy and damp afternoon, on a small, soft, uneven pitch, showing the difference in the legs between playing on 3/4G surfaces and grass. Fortunately all of the good money that was deposited in the fitness bank pre-season has been paying off.

There was a real arm wrestle in the first quarter, with neither team wanting to give up territory, even though 1871 gave away 6 penalties in this period.  However, Twickenham did eventually blink first, as after some 1871 coast to coast play and stretching the Twickenham defence, Luke Beasley (VC) (5) crashed over against the grain, hitting weak shoulders and Harrison Slater (C) (10) slotted the two extra points.

Another arm wrestle ensued, with the Twickenham 9 being a perfect 9 pest, by sniping and quick tapping all over the park and generally causing havoc.  He had a hand in the next score, which went in Twickenham’s favour at 24 minutes, as they won a scrum then he hit their hard running 12, who cut straight through a static 1871 defensive gap to score under the posts.  The same 9 converted to bring the scores level.  Very Morgan Para.

Clearly this was going to be a fight.

At 30 minutes, Luke Beasley went over in a similar fashion to his earlier score, after 1871 won their lineout and had a quick phase, before he crashed over the line, against another weak shoulder. Harrison Slater took the extras.

Harrison Slater called for the first score during the half time talk and 1871 delivered through Kimani Goppy (3) after 2 minutes, whereby 1871 won their scrum, Harry Mear (9) moved the ball out quickly and 1871 went coast to coast, then on the re-wind, Kimani hit a strong line and just kept going, bouncing Twickenham players as he went.  A good score, unfortunately no conversion this time.

1871 started to hit a stride and 7 minutes later, Ilan Trowbridge (12), back after a long lay-off from his arm surgery, was on the end of a pass from Harrison Slater who had dropped back to collect the Twickenham kick ahead.  Then Ilan just opened up, showing his deceptive speed and strength, handing off and or just outright beating the scrambling Twickenham defenders and refusing to be tackled, to score out wide, which Harrison duly converted.

To have the last say, Twickenham rallied and at 15 minutes, after another 1871 conceded a penalty, tapped and crashed over, which they also converted.  The remaining time in the game, was spent with both sides attacking and defending each other, and conceding numerous penalties as tiredness seeped into the game.

This was a tough fought game and sometimes you just need to win ugly

to get the job done.

Very well done to all and a special huge thanks to Connor Godfrey for coming along, against the massive challenge from the night before.