Dunstan - debut

Monroe - nasty injury late on

Samuel - Trying to impress girlfriend's brother!

Abrahams - cut down inches short

Homan - A complete flanker!

Quote of the day:

" "

Back again after the Christmas break and normal service resumed - 10 out of 10 and still unbeaten. The changing room banter before the start was of course about who had eaten the most, how unfit everyone felt and how proud people were of their bellies - why I don't know!

Anyway the day had started off perfectly but the clouds seemed to be closing in for the forecast rain which thankfully never arrived but was replaced by late sun which seemed more of a hindrance to our eyes.

After the fixtures secretary had failed to notify us that the KO was 2:15 p.m. rather than 2 p.m. and we had stood around for another 15 minutes the game got underway. Immediately we were under the cosh as a disorganised BBB conceded 7 points after only about 5 minutes. Was this a reflection on the standard of Cobham or laziness on our part? The latter was definitely the case as almost from the restart we forced our way into their half and were rewarded with a try by Samuel (converted) which came as a result of a forward surge and a simple backs move. Julian got the ball with a little work to do and he finished well by cutting inside and using his immense bulk to power over! We were level.

Territorially we had the better of the first half and we went ahead after Cobham has failed to clear their lines and a typical counter attach saw Penn cut through and cross, Samuel converting. As if resting on our laurels Cobham came back to level - Leslie failing to close down his opposite man who ghosted through a gap the size of the Tyne Tunnel!

With various reshuffling in the second half we were reduced to uncontested scrums and the traffic was mainly one way - our way! With no reply to our 33 points scored in the second half Cobham seemed to lack our energy and resorted to trying to spoil our ball and kicking for possession. Food and drink for us as they could not really kick so we mounted many glorious counter attacks at them. Amongst the resulting tries scored Penn, Homan, Crawford & Boucher crossed. Injury to Lachy Monroe (knee) with 15 minutes to go halted the flow and poor Lachy was structured off to be taken to hospital. We await the news.

The highlight of the day for me came late on as Abrahams picked up from a ruck and dummied left - dummy taken Mark set off on a 10 m dash for the line only to be cut down just inches short by a pincer tackle! Haji followed up and as Mark presented the ball Omar picked up and leapt over the obstruction (sorry Mark!) to score his first for the club.

Special mentions to Simon Dunstan & Mark Elwig who made their debut on Saturday. Simon was ever present in all we did on the park & Mark, although he only got a half showed potential!

Comment: Shaky start but were too strong for Cobham in the end.

Tim Penn

Team List:

Simpson, Crawford, Abrahams, Mclennen-Fordyce, Haji, Homan, Cavalini, Flather, Dunstan, Leslie, Ross, Penn, Boucher, Samuel, Monroe, Elwig