Windsor League Match

Our last league match of the season, against unbeaten Windsor, a side we’ve not played since Tag Rugby. The setting couldn’t have been more perfect, a slightly misty start, & Her Majesty could probably have stuck her head out of the guest suite to watch the match, however I’m lead to believe that Phillip had other ideas for the morning.
As with all our matches this season we started off brightly & camped on Windsor’s line for the first 10 minutes, without managing to convert any of our chances into points. A number of good chances were either snuffed out by strong defence or spilled by nervous hands. Disappointingly we were pinged for holding on in the tackle & then marched back another 10 metres for back chat, not good.
Windsor were first on the score sheet following a break down the right wing, followed by an inside ball, with no defence in sight an easy touch down followed. Ensians countered & from a line out 10 metres out the ball was spun wide to take advantage of a three man overlap for Cook to touch down in the corner. George was just short with his conversion. The rest of the half seemed to be played in the Windsor half, however the last move of the half saw a break down the Windsor right wing & poor cover tackling resulted in a try under the posts. 12 – 5 to Windsor at the break.
Ensians needed to start strongly in the second half, however the opposite happened! From the kick off Ensians allowed the ball to bounce, failed to collect & Windsor went under the post for an easy try. 17-5, two minutes & 10 points shipped. How would we respond? Well I’m afraid to say that heads seemed to drop, accusations under the posts seemed to arise & Windsor took us to the sword. A further 25 unanswered points followed, giving a final score of 5 -45, not pretty. A couple of highlights from the second half included Large standing up to his opposite number. A break by Adams & if the ball had been carried in two hands it may have resulted in recycled ball instead of a knock on. A classic break by Boden which we all believed would result in a try, the Windsor covering tackler had different ideas!
MOTM was Charlie Perry, plenty of hard work done in the breakdown area.
Man of Steele was Aaron Bailey, cracking work throughout the league season, & the enviable ability to down a pint of red stuff in record time!
The hospitality of the Windsor hosts should also be commended in a season when we’ve often been left to our own devises after matches!
Overall we’re perhaps disappointed by finishing 4th in our first league season, however we should remember that our players are 12 & 13, they’ve years ahead of them. The sides that have beaten us have been good. If we’d fallen to weaker sides we’d be worried. We’ve had 27 different players in our league squad & we’ve Abbeyensians to look forward to next season for our fringe players.
Next week we’re due to play Petersfield at home, the following week we’re away to Horsham, then it’s tour to Abergavenny & Ledbury, Plenty left for us all to enjoy!
If anyone lost a 2010 Tour Shirt today then it’s in the ball bag.
Finally, on Saturday 3 of our players, Adams, Mortimer & Clark turned out for the U14s in a match against a touring side from Solihull, none of them looked out of place. If you want to cure insomnia then ask Max about his try.