First of all apologies for a lack of match reports on the last two games I seemed to have phased them out of my memory, so to sum up:

Brockleians 1st XV vs Orpington 1st XV – I seem to remember being drunk shortly after the game here but from what I hear the Brocks dominated in this game and had Orpington up against the ropes! Final score: Orpington 52 Brocks 0

Old Williamsonians 1st XV vs Brockleians 1st XV – After arriving with 14 we successfully got 15 on the field after 10 minutes and were ahead, I’d like to end the match report here because once they figured out they weren’t going to score through our forwards and started getting the ball wide they took us apart.  The only way I can describe this game in any more detail would involve me having to reclassify this website as hardcore pornographic, the kind of thing you’d find on Ian Bender’s computer involving a donkey and bicycle pump.  Final Score: Old Williamsonians 58 – Brocks 5

Points earned

M.Fletcher                   5

Right back to the report!  Brocks started off the afternoon with a keen warm-up hitting tackle bags hard and getting geared up for what we knew would be a physical game. Kick off came round and with a promising charge we moved into the opposition half and closed down everything they had to offer; fringes were defended,  tackles were made, defensive lines were setup and for the first 10 minutes this continued.  New Ash Green kept hold of the ball well and eventually smashed through for 5 points but the Brocks heads could be held high it was a try they deserved and it definitely did not come easy.

Proving this point we came back hard and pushed them straight from kick off back into their 22 with some very good ball retention and some clever play we had two lineouts on the 5 but we simply could not convert that field position into points and after 10 minutes and with a silly try you could see the Brocks head drop.  The rest of the half followed with Brocks not really being able to recover from this with multiple tries being run in against us, this combined with the last two results was clearly having an effect on our normally impressive morale.

2nd Half came along and Mahoney was dragged over from the 2s to replace Dave Gearing who we simply couldn’t risk an injury being our only choice for hooker next week at Foots Cray especially with so many other front row out at the moment to injury.  Mahoney made it his responsibility to pick our heads up with a few speeches that would have had Churchill out of his grave to pack down and straight away we saw the forwards mount an impressive run of hard hitting tackles and impressive support.  We took the ball off New Ash Green in nearly every lineout and scrum no matter whose ball it was and this resulted in a penalty and a well worked forward’s try lead by Alex Wynne-Williams really putting belief back into the side.

Unfortunately this was short lived and when New Ash Green went back to basics we came up short on the defensive front.  As the game came to a close New Ash Green showed their true colours again by acting like a bunch of moaning footballers, something we normally punish with hard play and a few reminders they play a contact sport where the ref can't watch us at all times, however instead today with a few basic moves and a lot of frankly soft tackles we handed them a landslide victory they simply didn’t deserve.  Final Score: 58 - 8

Special mention to Ben “Bomber” Harris for completely taking their lineout out of the game with some impressive reading and interceptions, Captains man-of-the-match goes to Mahoney for showing us boys the way we should be playing and leading from the front when we needed it most.  Also I want to add the whole team needs a pat on the back for our excellent discipline towards the ref, something that if combined with hard rugby will win us games.

On a more positive note we take on Foots Cray next week and we know exactly what to expect from them a physical game possibly with a few handbags followed by a good drink!  I don’t need to tell you guys how much we all want to walk away with our 1st win and would encourage you all to get your arse down to training on Wednesday and to the venue at 1pm on Saturday so we can work on our game and come home with the result we all want and need.

Points earned

A.Wynne-Williams                   5             I.Bender                   3