Wet warriors win in Watford

With all of the home games postponed under water, it was a tad surprising that we received no notification from Watford that their pitches had suffered a similar fate, particularly given the deluge experienced on the journey around the M25.

On arrival, it seemed that the weather was no better but despite plenty of puddles and mud everywhere else, it turned out that the water had found somewhere better to do rather than sit on their pitches, which were surprisingly firm under foot.

So a lengthier than usual “preparation” in the changing rooms led to a fine start by the boys, going three tries up (19-0) within the first 10 minutes. Another try was added just before the break, before a resurgent Watford stormed back into the game with their “impact bench”, with 3 unconverted tries of their own, before a long distance special from Toby ended the game at 15-29.

The first try, came from the Bracknell kick off, which was fielded by Watford only to find the onrushing Oakley there to cut the player down. Further pressure from Lewis, Matt and Toby led to a hasty retreat (with the ball) by the home team, before the Bracknell forwards turned the ball over, and with the defence well and truly dis-orientated, Josh went to the left, where Joe fed Oakley in plenty of space, to scoot over in the corner.

The second try was a similar affair, but this time, the Bracknell pack won good centre field ball and worked it wide for Ryan to punch up the middle of the pitch, when he was hauled down, his pack-mates swiftly re-cycled the ball, and again Josh and Joe went to the left, where this time Tim was on hand to finish the move. 3 minutes in and a flying start for the Bracknell boys.

The third try on 10 minutes was a little more long distance – initially – with Theo breaking several tackles in running from just inside the Watford half to score near the posts. Joe adding the extras to the latter two scores. At this point Watford did rouse themselves but found the tackling rather suffocating, and struggled to get out of their own half. It was little surprise that a fourth try was added by Lewis. It did look as if Theo was to add to his first score, with a rangy run from around half way, but with a good last-ditch tackle, he was denied, however like any good back row forward, Lewis was quickly on the scene to mop up the ball and slide over in the corner to take the score to 24-0.

With their particularly strong running No8, amongst those added to the field, Watford came right back, and initially the Bracknell boys struggled to contain his runs. However, he recorded two very powerful tries to bring the score back to 24-10 in quite quick time, before the Bracknell boys started applying their won offensive defence, with in particular Ryan, Oakley, Matt, Fraser and newcomer Harvey all putting in some very good tackles. It turned out that their try scorer also had quite a boot on him, and despite scoring all of his tries in the corner, he did come close on all of his conversion attempts. Great credit to Bracknell for ensuring that the tries were all out wide.

So a third Watford No8 try was added, when the boys lapsed briefly in their concentration and allowed a quick tap penalty. Before that however, amongst the cold, wind and rain there was time for some light relief (and afterwards much jollity in the club-house). A strong Bracknell scrum enabled Josh J to fire off down the left and with one player to beat he delivered a well timed pass to his team-mate (who shall remain nameless) to cross the try line unopposed for a well worked (almost) try. It seems that in the act of touching the ball down, he found his own knee in the way and managed to instead kick the ball over the dead ball line.

With fingers numbing fast, the boys and parents were looking toward the warmth of the club-house, but there was just time for Toby to add to his seasons tally. A Watford defensive kick toward Bracknells left wing was fielded by him, and he then proceeded to arc around the chasing Watfordians to score out wide in the right hand corner.

In summary, after appearing to be quite straightforward, the game turned out to be very competitive, and whilst it became more forward oriented as the game wore on, we must consider that the persistent rain, the wind and the cold made handling very difficult – particularly for the poor backs who were denied the warmth of the scrums! Great effort by all involved, and in the the conditions, a very, very impressive display.