Christmas in Surrey

After two frustrating weeks in the Berks Div 1, we found ourselves once more in one of our happier hunting grounds, the leafy glades of the Surrey stockbroker belt, for our traditional Christmas fixture against Chobham RFC.

Chobham and Bracknell have a long and friendly association and despite our recent run of success in matches against Surrey opposition, it was firmly in the back of our mind that this was the team that had handed us our biggest defeat ever (as under 9's!) and who had also beaten us in the corresponding fixture last season.

Making our job more difficult, Chobham had gained new players since last season and having spent last season rebuilding, it was barely a month since they had put the mighty Rosslyn Park to the sword in the Surrey leagues. With us coming off an uncertain performance last week, it was one of those fantastic fixtures in which anything could happen!

The only thing that was certain was that our hosts would put on a wonderful show of hospitality both on and off the pitch that would render any result a sideshow to everything that is good about rugby (and sadly missing from other sports!).

We made a few tweaks to our forward play at training on Wednesday, introducing a 'pod' system on attack to speed up slow ball and pressure defences into committing numbers with the aim of creating space out wide for our deadly back three. In addition would allow us to move the point of attack quickly and hopefully run opposition forward packs off their feet.

Back in the team were a few regulars missing the week before but a special welcome goes to County and London Irish Academy outside back Toby Holland playing his debut game for the club as well as another County and London Irish player Alex MacDonald coming off the bench for his first game back from long-term injury.

The conditions for the match were perfect, and with the fine James Davies on the whistle, we were to be spared some of the somewhat erratic officiating of the past weeks!

We received and were immediately put under early pressure by Chobham until a handling error led to a turnover and a counter attack that resulted in fine jinxing 50-meter run by JJ Paling down the left hand touchline for the opening try of the game.
The early score gave us the confidence to relax and play our systems that had been missing in the previous two weeks and it wasn't long before Tom Day scored our second with a finely worked eight pick-up from a scrum that was starting to assert itself. It wasn't long afterwards that our pod system showed it worth and having made the initial bust, loose-head prop Fergus Hill ran a superb line to finish off a perfect period of forward dominance.

Chobham were not intimidated and their forwards hit back hard with a series of dominant rucks that earned them great field position. Chobham pressure at the breakdown led to a penalty, quickly taken, and a try for their centre on the stroke of halftime. Score 15-5.

We chatted at half-time about upping the intensity and working hard on and off the ball and all agreed that we could take the game up a level.

Our scrum was firing on all cylinders and gave Tom Day another excellent opportunity to pick up at eight for his second in the corner. A quickly taken penalty allowed hard running Alexander Robinson (man of the match) to run the the ball at the Chobham defence for a fantastic try from the big unit. As the Chobham pack tired, the game opened up allowing Tom Day to cross for another superb effort from broken play.

The final try was the result of a superbly powerful run by Toby Holland and an offload that gave JJ Paling a run-in as his reward for the perfect supporting line and his second try of the game. It was not a day for the kickers Matt Dalrymple and JJ Paling and thus, unusually, none of our tries were converted. Final score 35-5.

The hospitality that followed was unprecedented in our experience and the spirit in which the players and coaches of both teams got together to celebrate the Christmas season rendered the result on the pitch largely irrelevant as the boys got stuck into a turkey dinner bar none.

Special mention needs be made of two Chobham players that stood out in a good team performance by our hosts, the two Sams - Davies at ten who managed the game well for Chobham despite the wind and some heavy attention from the Bracknell defence and Riley for being his massive efforts at the breakdown and carrying the ball up in attack - the latter of the two being our man of the match selection who duly beat Alexander in the down-down competition allowing our hosts to finish the day on a high!

Our thanks go to James, Teresa and the Chobham coaches and players whose hospitality was fantastic and whom we are looking forward to hosting in return in the spring.

Merry Christmas to all!

Andy