Park House FC

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24th September 2005
Beccehamians 31 - Park House 22

A full side was rejuggled, due to the non appearance of a prop & started up the hill, away from the road end. Becs tactics were clear from the start, get it to the outside. Some new faces in the backs had yet to bed in with each other & within minutes there was a clean break through the centre for their 1st score, 7-0.

This was then compounded by Park failing to establish any shape & playing silly, thoughtless rugby & a lose ball was hacked through by Becs, chased & another 7 pointer resulted. 14-0.

Despite being pulled together & told what was expected by acting capt. Russell Lamb, a no. of players hadn't heard the message about establishing a platform, controlling the ball through the forwards & using our weapons, ie the forwards, & it was some time until it did sink in. When it did, it was lovely, ruck, pick, drive, ruck pick, drive. 5mtr scrum, drive, pick, try. 14-5

Having put the frighteners on Becs, it was unfortunate therfore that there was still a lot of sloppy play. Mistimed passes, poor lineout control & silly slapbacks. This again gifted a breakaway & it was "over to you Becs winger, here you go" for another try, 21-5.

Half time came & Park made some changes in the backs in an attempt to get more cohesion & balance of skills, with Sweaty & Frostie moving to their traditional positions of Fly Half & O/S centre respectively, thus putting younger years, in the shape of James Foster, against younger years on the wing ,( thanks James, know it isn't a preferred position) & Phil Eaglestone to full back, where his pace & skills were better suited to the flying hack through that had been costing us so dearly.

Park now played 13 man rugby & it worked superbly. The forwards had been grinding the Becs pack down, producing more & more quality ball & somewhere in here Park scored again, once again through the forwards. Can't remember how, sorry.21-10
Somehow, with Eagles caught out of position, having made a nice break, Becs managed to get their hands on the ball, punted through & same result to their winger, 26-10.

However, there were also several spectacular breaks through the middle for Graves, Frost & Eaglestone. Two of these ended close to the Becs line. One resulted in a 5mtr scrum, a pushover was the result, taking it to 26-17, & another had Park within a Sharks arm's reach of the try line, but someone whispered in his ear, he left it alone, the ball was fed left & Tony Bunnage, who had been having a fantastic match, picked up a deserved try. 26-22

At this point, with 10 minutes to go & Park virtually dominating, Becs front row suddenly had to go uncontested ( been watching too much Premiership) & the sting was taken out of the game & so was Park's main weapon, as Bec's tiring bodies were now able to recover &, not having to scrummage, they competed more effectively at the rucks & mauls. The score remained the same until the final 10 seconds when an opportunistic kick through for a potential winning try to Park bounced the wrong way, was collected by guess who & it ended up being placed behind the other try line for a full time score of 31-22.

Park learnt lessons from this game & valuable ones they were too. Compete from the 1st whistle, don't expect to go unpunished for sloppy play, be prepared to change your game plan/tactics & be aware of the laws !! That said, it was a great game, & was thoruoghly appreciated by all 31 participants

Team:

Sweats, D Trembler, J Foster, I Greaves, P Frost, P Eagles, A Saunders

P Russ, A Bunnage, P Jinks, G Thompson, C Bicknell, R Lamb, J Cheyne,