Great performance from new look squad to finish runners up to strong Park

The festival format comprised two leagues of five teams - so four matches to play and the winners of each league meet in the Cup Final and the runners-up meet in the Plate Final. Last year, this festival was the launch pad for the rest of our successful 2012/2103 season, finishing second in our league and narrowly losing to Teddington 1-0 in the Plate Final. The big difference; last year it was held a month later allowing more time to prepare. With such an inexperienced team, could we possibly do anywhere near as well as that? Would we even win a match? There were some doubters (…..but not among the players!)

Camberley Cartered.….19-0
All those doubts were put to rest quickly with a comprehensive victory over Camberley, who never really looked like scoring. Matthew, making the move from Centre to Second Row (in the good spirit of RFU’s position rotation), made a great debut in the forwards and was very mobile around the park (as was Charlie – again Centre turned Second Row!). Elliot moving from hooker to scrum-half (again, RFU take note) released some great ball to our back line and our other debutants, Felix, Eddie and Ryan also put in solid performances and defended stoutly – amazing that Ryan only picked up a rugby ball three weeks ago, making the move from gridiron! (…no transfer fee). However, the debutants that made the most impression in the first game were Carter who scored two great tries and probably the pick of the bunch was Jude’s two metre run to score the final try (not a big run but notable by his excellent support play to be in there in the first place). Billy slotted over two of the three conversions, which was a bit nerve wracking being another new experience! Great start!

Teddington Tied….0-0
Defence last year was often our strength – winning the Camberley festival by scoring 17 tries and conceding none (nice shiny gold trophy still on display pitchside on Sunday for motivation purposes) - and so it went on with a very close encounter with Teddington, which ended up pointless (not in a negative way!). Teddington were one of the smallest teams but demonstrated that quick ball through the backs, quick tap penalties and clever kicks can outsmart bigger teams. We need to learn from that. Teddington went on to be runners up in the Plate Final and so a good performance once again from our B squad.

Esher Equalled…12-7
So halfway point in the league matches and we were sitting pretty! Crunch time now with two of the hardest games to come and we really had to win both to progress. Wimbledon took the lead with another try from Carter from very smart work at a quick tapped penalty taking everyone by surprise but unfortunately he failed to convert. Score 5-0. Esher then pulled a try back, which was the first conceded in more than 35 minutes of rugby – great effort by our boys. But what next? Oh no! What a nail biter! Esher got their conversion and so were leading 7-5 and time was running out. We produced some great attacking play lead by the usual brave efforts of Sachin at scrum half (who, unfortunately, had to go off injured) and some great running from Nathan, Wilf and Hugh. But up steps Rory and from a sequence of good rolling mauls and forward drives he emerges at the bottom of a big pile up having grounded the ball over the white (actually faded yellow) line – very reminiscent of the try he scored against Cobham at last year’s festival. Carter slotted the conversion and the final whistle blew – victory 12-7. Phew!

Warriors Wobble…7-0
So rather than warm up for the final match most of our squad were challenging Alan Burke and Andrew Morris in the score tent on the various mathematical permutations in the leagues. One squad member, who shall remain nameless, even suggested we were better off losing our final match to avoid Rosslyn Park in the final but that insubordination was swiftly put to rest. Most likely a minimum of a draw would be enough but we weren’t letting on! Due to a several refereeing no-shows this match was made even more tense by refereeing duties being very diplomatically shared between the two rival Wimbledon teams.
It was a close run affair and refereed superbly (!) – fortunately, I was spectating rather than officiating in the first half when Billy ran over for a fantastic try set up by Isaac, breaking several tackles and reaching one handed to touch down. He then slotted over to take a 7 point lead. Daniel really excelled at full back throughout the festival and I think we have found his perfect position but in this final encounter he really pulled off a stunning last ditch tackle to prevent a Warrior try from five metres out. The second half went without hitch (or any refereeing errors / biases, thankfully) and the boys were delighted to win and top their group being unbeaten (won 3, drawn 1) and scoring six tries, conceding only one in an hour’s rugby.
So we got to the final with a points tally of 38 in favour and 7 against with only one team crossing our line.

Unfortunately the Cup final, against a very strong Rosslyn Park side (please note, who had been on pre-season tour to Cornwall in preparation of these early festivals), wiped out that positive tally to end our hopes of a trophy and let us finish up with 38 points in favour and 42 points against. Still, a very good performance and huge credit to finish second to such a big club that has more than 100 players. The squad was a bit despondent at the end but we had to remind them of what a huge effort and outstanding performance was achieved on Sunday. We need to work on a bit more power and aggression in the scrums, rucks and mauls and quicker ball to our quality backs and we should have a great season.

The usual big thanks to the whole squad for their very positive attitude even when being subbed, pitch marshalls, car park attendants, tent erectors and all those helpers that made the day go well. Next year we run this festival and so a good dress rehearsal! Onwards and Upwards!

Match report by Richard Mardon.