St Neots RUFC Senior Men – Match Report – 04/09/2021

SNRUFC Senior Men 31 – Mens Own RFC 41

Saturday saw the first and long awaited pre-season fixture at the Common since the scourge of COVID played against Northampton Men’s Own supporting the launch of our JOCA initiative.

Our 1stXV Saints played the first half of this fixture allowing the 2nd XV, our Heathens to mop up the remains in the second half.

Men’s Own, currently playing in East Midlands 3, sported a large pack with similarities to a budget Viking raiding party but Saints came out firing from the whistle led by the lizard-like form of captain Joe Woodgate. The lads had trained hard in recent months, under the guidance of Paul ‘Eddie jones’ Wakeford, Piers Dingemans and James Larman and were itching to see if he hard work would pay off.

The “hard work” paid off in the next few minutes with Aiden Jordan running a try over from a nice set piece, jinking run and quick set of hands. Adam Porter slotted the kick to secure a 7 point lead. Lads clearly elated by the early lead reverted to usual form, took their eye off the ball allowing Men’s Own to run a reply under the posts from a series of forward pods despite some cracking tackles.

Saints quickly regrouped and played some of the best rugby seen at the Common in years. Aggressive tackling and rucking and well drilled set piece securing clean ball for scrum half Jack ‘Breakfast’ Webb to play out to the girls who using slick hands and tight running lines tore holes in the Men’s Own defence. Aggressive rucking at the breakdown denied the opposition from any turn overs and guess what? Not a single knock on!

What happened next is a bit of a blur, mainly due to our touch line note taker buggering off to Spain with the game notes. [Cheers Wakers]. All I can be sure off is that Saints dominated the game in every aspect. With Aiden Jordan blagging a two more tries and George Osborne nabbing a cheeky meat pie from a quick set of hands. A final try by Ross Hubbard off a catch and drive completed the first half with three of these being ably slotted by Porter.

Scrums settled after a long sabbatical from the game with most of the front row relishing a return to prolonged close bodily contact with like minded souls. Karl Sinclair , Finn Martin and Raf Maganananana putting in a shift in the front row supported by father and son duo Woo and Ross Hubbard in the second row. A fierce back row of Pete Sharp and Aiden Pearsell with Aiden Jordan at 8 never failed to impress despite looking like a strange Russian boy band.

Saints continued to dominate at the line outs utilising the new 4 man line. Karl Sinclair again impressing with his commitment and aggression playing off tidy line out ball. This allowed quick ball out to the backs who were running so many moves no one could keep tally.
Now I’m not a fan of backs, don’t trust them, they move too quick and they have too much hair, however they did not fail to impress. Webby, Ports, Will Smith, George Osborne, Dean Terrablanche, Kieran Rook, Ben Carley, James Larman and Joe Woodate all marking their territory and place in the squad like a pack of effeminate feral beasts.

All in all Saints left the field elated at their performance having dominated of team from a higher league 33-7 and keen to collect another scalp. Man of the Match being awarded to Adam Porter [obvs] and dick of the day to Colt of the year [2015 to 2021] Will Smith for falling over with a clear run to the line.

After a well drilled first half the Heathens made up the squad for the second half.

With it being the first proper game back in so long it was important that everyone available got a game so many changes were made.

Men's Own managed to work heavily around the fringes and exploit inexperience’s within the Heathens and pulled back from their deficit. More changes were made for the last quarter and Heathens managed a stronger defence and attack.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to beat through a revitalised Men's Own moral who won the second half and ultimately the game by just 2 points.

Honourable shout out to Kieran Arber for his constant chatter, keeping the communication in the pack on point