28/11/08

On a cold overcast day the result was not going to be much brighter, Civil Service took to the field and in a smart start confidently swung the ball wide with Duncan Rutherford scoring a try within 1 minute 0-5. Within 10 minutes injury to Civil Service flanker Heine Van der Speck meant he had to be replaced which changed the balance of the scrum and Ruislip were able to settle. What was ahead! Well as it turned out Civil Service and Ruislip decided to play a solid game but with a lot of errors on both sides it took until the 32 minutes for Civil Service to be awarded a penalty converted by Brendon Robinson to go 0-8 ahead. Ruislip turned the screw and Civil Service were unable to stop the infringing and on 38 and 40 minutes opened the door for Ruislip as they took the two penalties to finish the half at 6-8 all to play for. Second half started as the light became worse Civil Service with renewed energy piled on the pressure and were awarded a penalty converted by Brendon Robinson to go 6-11 ahead. Ruislip were playing strongly and again during this period of 10 minutes Civil Service taking a leaf out of the England game plan gave away a further two penalties to bring Ruislip right back to lead the game for the first time 12-11 on 65 minutes. Ruislip and Civil Service were defending well snuffing out each others attacking play which may have forced some of the aerial ping pong. Civil Service then showed what they are capable of and in a well worked passage of play the backline sliced through Ruislip Chris Mckay scoring on 70 minutes 12-16 no conversion. Ruislip never a side to lie down kept the pressure on and battered away inside the Civil Service 22 knowing a try was the only way to finish the game and Ruislip were awarded penalties which they took with scrums. Despite their best efforts it looked as if Civil Service would hold Ruislip out but in the 80th minute Ruislip got the ball wide and their full back dived over for the final score to win 17-16 in a pulsating but gut wrenching finish. Great credit to Ruislip for sheer determination but it was in Civil Service grasp and it was the team that allowed Ruislip to win through infringing and some poor kicking decisions.

Paul Tiller