Civil
Service ran riot in their last game proving what a costly loss Eton Manor was
early in the season. Welwyn struggled manfully to contain the exuberant Civil
Service team but were out of their depth and will be relieved to have finished
with this league but all credit to Welwyn for completing the season and for
being such good hosts to the team
Easter
weekend should the RFU have pushed the league to play, very tough for amateur
teams to break into family time on the first public holiday weekend and
resolves nothing as yet another game was lost to the weather in London 1 South meaning
there is a possibility of playing into May and another bank holiday weekend
savaging team selection and availability for the last hurdle of the play
off.
Civil
Service played a steady controlled first half scoring 24 unanswered points the
second half was rather dull by comparison and scoring another 18 points the in
the first 20 minutes the game petered out as the weather turned nasty with a very strong wind and soaking
rain.
Civil
Service strolled through this game with some majestic play dominating areas of
the game and punishing some Woodford loose play but in their exuberance
squandered several good chances to increase the score. However a good all round
performance and the players enjoyed the outing.
Duke’s Meadows
After a good start to the New Year against London Scottish the following
week, Civil Service were aiming to follow on in the same vein as they hosted
After this initial shock, Civil managed to regain some composure.
The pack were giving away a fair bit of weight and struggling in the scrum,
however in the loose they were winning the battle. Webby, who was returning
from an ACL injury had a very bright game, not showing any lack of confidence
and marshalling the backline. After some telling pressure and some good phase
play Civil broke down the
Civil had a lot of possession at the start of the second half
and were able to stretch the Park defense to the
point where the visiting side’s discipline faltered. Merph
took the opportunity to put Civil in front with the penalty kick. 17-14
With 50 minutes gone, Civil were ahead but the game was very much
in the balance, as the home side were struggling with their set piece ball.
This problem escalated as William Alway, who had been summoned from
Civil seemed to relax slightly and conceded a weak try followed
by a penalty kick. 17-24. Civil were quick to respond with some sharp play by
Sullivan, charging down a kick from the Park 10, and collecting the ball to score
under the posts. Merph dutifully knocked over the
conversion leveling the score once again. 24-24.
With the time ticking away, and the game opening up as players
started to tire it was desperate stuff from both sides. Civil caught the Park flyhalf isolated and forced him to concede a penalty on the
Park 10 meter line, and Merph converted the pressure
kick to put Civil ahead. With a couple of minutes left, the Park 10 missed a
similar kick and Civil held on to win the game 27-24.
This
was a fantastic win for Civil as they managed to overturn all the odds, and
steal a tight battle at the very death.
Duke’s
Meadows
Civil
Service, strengthened by a number of players returning from injury, made a good
start to the New Year with a home victory against London Scottish. In wet and windy conditions at Duck’s Meadows, the score-line
somewhat flatters a London Scottish side who needed to borrow Lee Donovan for
the first half an hour to make up a full team. If it hadn’t been
for a number of squandered chances, and dropped balls with the try-line
beckoning, the difference would have been much greater.
Clarkey, making only his second start in a Civil Service jersey, opened
the scoring with an early try, finishing off a well worked move out wide. Shortly after PJ powered
through the Scottish backline to touch down under the posts. The Service
pack were making mincemeat of the Scottish forwards,
and the backline was showing a surprising amount of enterprise despite the
weather.
At this
point the spectators were probably thinking that it would turn into a rout.
Despite this strong start however, Service went through the first half lacking
the killer instinct, and were probably not helping themselves by trying to play
a barbarian brand of rugby with long passes and offloads going to ground.
Service
started the second half in much brighter form than they showed in the run-in to
halftime. The backs continued to make telling breaks, with Ali, Searge and PJ cutting through the Scottish backline,
however even in the wet conditions some of the finishing was poor. The forward
pressure began to show in the second half and two tries came from scrums close
to the Scottish line. Victor scored by pouncing on loose ball that squirted out
the back of a Scottish scrum and Dan touched down after the pack pushed a scrum
over the Scottish line.
London
Scottish did have a spell on the front foot towards the end of the game,
however good defence by Service in the tight kept the visitors scoreless. Right
at the death Calum Morris managed to squeeze in the
corner to inflate the score line as he attempted to make up for missed chances
earlier in the game.
These two teams have a history of highly
competitive rugby with close scores and this was no exception with the lead
changing hands Chingford hanging on under severe pressure at the end were forced
to infringe leaving Scott Hadden with an all or
nothing penalty from out wide superb kick and the game was won.
Make no mistake Rochford pushed Civil Service hard
The weather was
fine for rugby bright and dry with a steady breeze as Civil Service took to the
field for what they anticipated to be a hard game against Woodford. Civil
Service started with good intent drawing Woodford into a giving away a penalty
duly converted by Hadden 3 -0 after 5 minutes.
However it took Civil Service a further 25 minutes to register the next score.
Civil Service penetrated the Woodford defence with some ease for Gillett to
score and another Hadden conversion 10 -0 32 minutes.
This was followed 2 minutes later with a final penalty converted by Hadden 13 -0 going into half time. The half was a testament
to Woodford’s stoic defence denying the Civil Service attacks and it
looked as if it could be a long afternoon. However the second half started with
a try after 4 minutes of the restart by O’Leary converted by Hadden 20 -0 followed almost immediately after some flowing
play, the Civil Service backs swept through Woodford for winger Cox to move the
score to 25 -0. Woodford rallied and forcing their way up field their 4 Goday blasted over for the try converted by Levis 25 -7
after 56 minutes. The Civil Service response was a purple patch twenty minutes
during which they scored 5 tries by Ryan, Morris, Ryan, Cox and Drayson plus 4 conversions from Hadden
keeping up his high quality kicking taking the score final score to 58 -7.
Civil Service showed that the hard work of the first half had sapped the energy
of Woodford and they had no answers to the flowing play exhibited by Civil
Service the back line able to play freely. Civil Service showed why they are
top of the league but sometimes over worked the ball leading to handling errors
but overall a very strong performance.
PT
Civil Service travelled to Westcliffe near Southend
for this top of the table clash, after the two hour coach trip Civil Service went
through their warm up but started the game slowly and found themselves four
penalties down in the first 20 minutes as the two sides tried to pry each other
open. Things were looking ominous to the delight of the well fuelled home
supporters, at this point there had been a nasty clash of heads between two
Civil Service players resulting in hospital and seven stitches and a large
bandage for the second player. This was the trigger that woke up Civil Service
and in the final 10 minutes of the first half
the forwards showed their strength and scored two tries by Butler and
Gillett a conversion and a penalty by Hadden to take the lead 15 -12. Westcliffe supporters
became aware that this was not going to be an easy afternoon Civil Service
settled into this very competitive game and during the second half showed why
Civil Service are so hard to beat with some super defensive work nullifying
Westcliffe’s skilful kick and chase game. Curiously the second half had
no tries Civil Service failing to ground the ball on two occasions and
Westcliffe not able to penetrate the defence. On the attack Civil Service
started to dominate the Westcliffe forwards forcing them to give away a string
of penalties yielding 5 converted penalties for Hadden
in a confident display, taking the final score to 27-18.
CIVIL SERVICE 2nd 7 BLACK BA BA 24
Under strength team costs points
Close game but pipped
at the post
LONDON SCOTTISH 15 v CIVIL SERVICE 2nd 44
Good performance to take the win
CIVIL
SERVICE 2nd 30 EALING COUGARS 25
Duke’s
Meadows
The sun was
beating down on Duke’s Meadows, and a fair crowd had amassed on the side
line as both Civil Service teams were at home for the first time this season.
The Alway/Coutts bar was teaming with custom and the missing clubhouse did not
dampen the simmering atmosphere.
Civil had a
rather barbarian feel to their side as much of the team had yet to train with
one another, and the warm up was not as slick as it could have been. This lack
of cohesion was manifest in the opening stages of the game as Ealing
capitalised on Civil’s uncertainty at the
kick-off. Civil were back under their posts, a score down and the game had only
just begun.
As the game
progressed, however, the Civil team began to gel, putting phases together,
which Ealing found hard to defend against. Tries from Rob Daley and Greg Bonsu regained the ascendancy for Civil. Rob Daley used his
power to bundle over from close range, and Greg Bonsu
finished off a move that Q created with a majestic break and offload. The home
team went in at half time leading and playing the better rugby.
After halftime
Civil suffered a couple of setbacks. Civil lost their captain, Edward Hill as
he got ‘chinned in the peck’ and shortly after a silly mistake by Civil’s scrumhalf, Victor Alway, gifted Ealing a run
in under the posts. Alway soon redeemed himself however, as he collected a
loose kick by Ealing and sprinted in to touch down in the corner.
The game ebbed
and flowed with neither side able to exercise any real control, and with 10
minutes to go Civil had a perilous lead of 23-22. With so little separating the
two teams Civil could hardly believe it when their ill-discipline gifted Ealing
a kickable penalty, which allowed the visitors to poke their noses in front for
the first time since the first score of the game. 25-23 Ealing, but still time
for another swing of the pendulum.
With the final
whistle approaching and the hot weather and hard ground having taken its toll
on both sets of players, Van still had plenty of running in his legs to make a
fantastic arching break and selflessly draw the fullback to put Phil Reid under
the posts. 30-25 Civil!
Man of the Match: Q for his energy, crunching tackling and
mesmerising offloads
Civil Service 2nd XV18 Vs. Twickenham RFC Development 16
On the hottest day of the year so far, fifteen men took to a field more akin to the serengeti than a rugby pitch. And the match started in a appropriate vein to the environment, extremely physical up front early on, with both teams contesting the break down valiantly. Trading penalties early on, Twickenham showed they had a considerable weapon in their place kicker, who went on to notch a 100% record with his kicks over the course of the game.
Civil Service showed their own weapons mid way through the first half, as a sweeping first phase move from a slick line out resulted in Eoin Boyle touching down in the corner. While this was an excellent team move, a lack of concentration soon after led to a Twickenham try, as they worked numbers wide to create an overlap that Civil Service could not defend. Not disheartened, Civil Service showed that they had a fighting spirit that they will do well to preserve over the course of the season. Luckily, one of Civil Service’s second rows contributes more to the game than conceding penalties, so when Chris Butler strode clear of the Twickenham loose forwards, even throwing in a ridiculous sidestep on the last man to score, Civil Service were rightly buoyed. They entered the half time break 18-13 up on Twickenham, looking to consolidate in the second half.
The second half however, proved very similar to the start of the game - hotly contested at the breakdown, and very tight. Civil Service showed an incredible amount of resillience, not to mention discipline considering the class of the opposition kicker, to restrict Twickenham to a further three-point penalty. When Civil Service conceded a penalty in the last minute of the game, and Twickenham chose to go to the corner, it would have been easy for the team to drop their heads. However, they stepped up to the challenge, and contested the line out to steal the most valuable ball of the game. Can’t remember who the jumper was, it looked like Lee Donovan.
And so it was that Civil Service showed their intentions for the
season ahead - a well drilled, adventurous team who would fight to the last
minute of every game. Good luck and on to the next game - Ealing.
TRAINING
TUESDAY /THURSDAY
TUESDAY/THURSDAY 2009 at Civil Service sports
ground. 7.15. All Welcome.
.