Cantabrigians in the North East London Division 2

Saturday 14th November 2015 home against Cantabrigians in the North East London Division 2
Woodham were looking forward to this game after a good win at Campion last week. Cantabs travelled from Cambridge after a home defeat to Saffron Walden. The conditions were wet and overcast which affected the play all afternoon with too many handling mistakes.

Woodham started much better this week and after some good defence gained a penalty which Jack Reeve put into the corner. The resulting catch and drive from the line out found John Murphy emerging with the ball for the first try and with Jack converting for a 7-0 lead. Cantabs came into the game now and from a ruck penalty for offside scored for their fist points of the game 7-3. 15 minutes into the game Josh Levy made the first of many runs to put Woodham into the Cantabs 22. The ball was then switched to find second row David Bull lurking on the opposite wing and he used his experience to finish in the corner and make the score 12-3 with Woodham’s second try. At this stage Woodham gained dominance in the contact area with Lewis Gilbert winning good turn over ball and the ref losing patience with Cantabs which resulted in a yellow card for a Cantabs player with 3 minutes to go in the first half. Another Josh run and a scrum against the head saw Woodham pounding the Cantabs line and eventually Ricky Turner, with a great leg drive after initially being halted, scored Woodham’s third try which Jack converted to leave the half time score at 22-3.

The conditions in the second half deteriorated as did my paper and pen making the second half report a blur. 10 minutes into the half ,Coach Tony Woods made his now inspirational substitute putting Steve Kerslake on. After a good backs move and with Steve’s first touch of the ball, he scored Woodham’s fourth try which was converted by Jack leaving the scored at 29-3. Woodham now felt the game was won but Cantabs had other ideas. They now had dominance in the line out and especially the scrum and they used the pack to play their rugby in the Woodham 22 which resulted in an increase in the penalty count and Lewis yellow carded. One period of play saw Cantabs pummelling the Woodham line and a great tackle and ball steal by Neil Gittos saw the ball cleared and therefore, no change to the score. Woodham could not keep up this defence and Cantabs scored two trys, the first being converted but with time running out they could not add to the score making it 29-12 at the finish.

Woodham will be happy with the bonus point win but need to play for the whole 80 minutes. Tony and Ryan Marshall the skipper were both happy with the overall performance. The reporter’s man of the match was Josh Levy. After missing last season through injury, Josh is now getting match fit and playing with confidence, making many incisive runs. A special mention to Joe Dukelow who controlled the game at 9 and looked like an extra back row in defence. Cantabs had scrum and lineout dominance in the game and used the drive of the lineout to gain ground but Woodham had dominance in the contact area all over the pitch which eventually led to the win.

An apology to Jorden Harper for calling him Jorden Philips last week, a senior moment from the senior reporter Barry Gittos.