The weather threw everything at this game in the eighty minutes the teams were on the pitch sunshine, strong North wind, rain showers, hail storm, torrential rain and pleasant warmth to freezing temperature, yes that’s right the first day of spring was here. Civil Service are still motivated to play winning rugby even though promotion is not possible and approached this game with a good performance in mind. The opening few minutes showed just how much they wanted to get the points on the board and put Eton Manor under a great deal of pressure with Civil Service dominating the set piece work with good efforts by front row Kent Hinton, Daryl Gore, Mic Drayson. Eton Manor also showed they were there for a purpose and counter attacked well with the advantage of the wind. Civil Service broke out of defence and carried the play up to the Eton Manor 22 and from set piece work deft passing from Hadyn Cummings to Dan Somerville to Chris Mckay who broke through to score under the posts converted by Matt Easton 7 -0 after 15 minutes. There was a brief but heavy shower to make they field greasy, with a lot of the play Civil Service were victims of trying too hard leading to some forward passes in their keenness to keep the ball moving, this allowed Eton Manor to have their best period of play during which they opted for a penalty kick rather than the scrum 7 -3 after 30 minutes. Civil Service snapped to and with good pressure and some good inter passing Chris Mckay burst through for his second try under the posts converted by Matt Easton 14 -3 after 35 minutes. The first half closed with Civil Service defending their 22 and watching the dark clouds rushing towards them. Second half had hardly started when the strengthening wind played its part as it floated a back pass the full back missed the bounce and the Eton Manor chasing player got the bounce and took the try under the posts and converted it 14 -10 after 42 minutes. Shaken but not flustered Civil Service grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and played some good solid rugby in the worsening weather as the hail came down and the temperature dropped it was Chris Mckay that got his hat rick after some good work by the forwards with Steve Richardson working hard all game 21 -10 after 52 minutes. The weather was winning at this point as the rain became so heavy you could just see the other side of the field. During this period of play tempers got a little frayed and the handbags were out but it was soon forgotten as Matt Easton stormed home for a well taken try and conversion 28 -10 after 61 minutes. The weather started to ease but the soaking conditions were causing handling problems for both sides at this point. Civil Service were now camped firmly in the Eton manor 22 and the game was finished off by Aaron Campbell cutting through the defence for a final score to finish at 33 -10 the ref was cold so blew on 78 minutes A solid show of strength by Civil Service the game was over as it had begun in glorious sunshine.
Paul Tiller