Horde beat league leaders Beaconsfield

In wet and blustery conditions, Beaconsfield were out warming up long before most of the Horde had rolled in/left the warmth of the club house.

It’s fair to say that the early stages of the Horde warm up compared unfavourably to the mini guard of honour playing on the adjacent pitch – the latter having both more energy and organisation.

But a swift team talk followed and by kick off both forward, backs and whole team practices had been completed to a decent standard.

For the first 10-15 minutes the Horde seemed camped between the halfway line and their own 22.

A combination of a combative forwards display, with the back three of Jason, Guy and Gareth making a through nuisance of themselves and very quick line speed by the backs made it very difficult for the visitors to go through the defence.

Andy McCrory’s steadying influence was critical in the early stages with fine defensive work foiling attacks, kicking relieving pressure and presence providing a steadying influence for the younger backs.

Going round the Horde defence was equally joyless for the visitors.

Nevertheless, with 15 minutes played, the territory and possession was overwhelmingly in favour of the fancied visitors with Beaconsfield looking to move the ball wide to their dangerous outside centre and wingers.

For this reason the Hordes first real attack was all the more important.
From well inside their own half, quick ball won by the forwards and speedily delivered by Tom saw a perfectly executed backs move slice through the Beaconsfield line.

Several passes and some frantic defending later, Beaconsfield were defending a ruck a 5 metres out from their own try line.

A couple of phases later to generate quick ball, delivered in the end by second row Matt, and Gareth Ray was the additional back to power through and touch down under the posts.

Beaconsfield had every right to feel a bit shocked as all their territory and possession had left them pointless and 7 points down as McCrory had added the conversion.

The Horde on the other hand had no right to be playing as they did. The handling would have looked excellent in a summer sevens game – to play in such a manner with a constant drizzle, gusty wind and muddy as hell was superb skill.

To be fair, both teams adapted well to the weather and it was not the knock-on-scrum-and-kick-fest that might be expected.

Where the back divisions differed was in organisation and unit play.

The Horde backs had a plan to open up the Beaconsfield backs and it worked.

And it kept working, again and again.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” was the mantra and on three more occasions great hands, timing and running lines saw Stephen and Lawrence slicing through and behind the Beaconsfield backs.

And as any forward can tell you there is nothing better than getting up and seeing your backs 40 or 50 yards in front of you. It’s the easiest “running” the tight five will do.

Conversely, there is nothing worse than looking up and seeing you have to backtrack 50 yards. Psychologically, the Horde backs were paying back the forwards for ball being won at scrum and lineout. Even if, on one occasion that meant James summoning a monster kick which went from deep inside the Horde 22 to about the same point on in the Beaconsfield 22.

Dave Carter's try from the wing later in the half showed the earlier handling skills had not been a fluke and the half time the score was 12-0.

During the game, both teams replaced their scrum halves. The visitors went for youth, bringing on a smaller and very nippier replacement. The Horde went for bulk, experience and, frankly, beastliness, bringing on Matt.

After a long injury layoff, some trepidation might have been evident with Matt’s return to the game. That trepidation should have been for the visitors if they knew what was to come.

The options this created for both teams were different and it’s not to disparage the Beaconsfield 9 to say Matt had the greater impact, both on the game and physically.

Lawrence opened the scoring well in the second half but Beaconsfield regrouped to score a try of their own.
Lawrence capped a fine offensive and defensive game with a devastating tackle that looked like some sort of tactical rocket had launched itself into the visitor’s midfield.

Matt at 9 meanwhile had been adding a new dimension to the forward efforts with his carrying. One 50m break up the wing was a warning of what was to come.

Winning a scrum on their own 10m line, 10 seconds later the visitors were another try down and shortly after Andy McCrory again added the extras.

Matt was possibly marginally outside the law by perhaps being offside at the scrum but what followed was positively criminal as he mugged his opposite number and assaulted and battered his way 40 metres up field, defenders bravely but vainly trying to bring to bring him while the onlookers were split between roaring him on and the urge to call Childline to report the abuse being dished out.

A great return to the game which left the younger visitors visibly shocked.

All that was left was for the benchwarmers to get a run out – the original 15 had produced a magnificent team display and won a superb victory.

Beaconsfield scored a consolation try late on but by now the clock, and belief, were on the side of the Horde.

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Link to League Table

http://clubs.rfu.com/Fixtures/MatchByDivision.aspx?DivID=162465397

Link to Beaconsfield match report

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/beaconsfieldrfc/s/match-report-61503.html?official=0&fixture_id=1639033