February 2003 Match Reports

8th February 2003

Scorers:
Tries: Evans, Titch
Convs: Battye 2
Pens: Battye 2

On a grey, overcast afternoon the Wanderers visited Westcliff for the second time this year. After defeat at the hands of their first XV it was imperative for the nomadic club to put on a good show and beat the home team’s second string players.

Things began badly for the Wanderers with tardiness yet again from a number of players preventing any meaningful or worthwhile warm up and set piece drill before the kick off. This is a situation that needs to be rectified before the long awaited entry into the Eastern counties league programme begins next season.

And so to the match. Surprisingly Wanderers began with a certain degree of urgency with some surging runs from the base of the scrum and through the midfield allowing a half chance for Tey to break through. Only some desperate defending by the home side’s backs prevented an early score. Unfortunately this early pressure was not sustained and Westcliff were able to advance up the field and open the scoring with a penalty.

This early score instead of galvanizing the black and tangerines had the reverse effect and too many players were at half pace. The lack of effort led to a further score this time a try under the posts which was simply converted. The score now read 10 – 0. This score by contrast did have the desired effect on the visiting team with Culleton the captain giving a scathing and robust team talk to gee up his colleagues.

From the restart there was greater urgency from the Wanderers and they opened their account with a well taken penalty from Battye followed by a second a few minutes later.
There then followed a sublime piece of rugby to reward the Wanderers with their opening try. It began with Richards chasing well to catch and turn the Westcliff halfback. The resulting ruck was won giving Cronin some clean, quick, quality ball with which to feed Battye. A quick pass to Horne allowed the centre time to straighten the line and pass on to the incoming blind side wing, Messo. Arriving like an express train the Kenyan took the pass and wrought havoc in the Westcliff three-quarter line. Inter-passing between Messo and Tey allowed Evans, on the left wing, the space to streak into the corner for a fine try. Battye converted the difficult kick to bring the Wanderers into the lead at 13 – 10 with the interval approaching.

The second half began with Horne making way for Titch in the centre. The powerful Zimbabwean was soon to make his mark with some individual brilliance allied with strong running to breeze through the home side’s poor defence. Battye converted to bring the score to a healthy 20 – 10.

From this point the game degenerated into a spiteful, petulant affair with players from both sides seeing yellow, Cronin had ten minutes for throwing the ball at an opposition head while Westcliff saw their resident Elvis look-alike face similar treatment for a constant tirade of abuse towards the match official.

Unfortunately these measures did not have the desired effect with the game deteriorating further into anarchy. The fresh faced referee seemed perplexed on how to restore order and eventually called a halt to proceedings ten minutes from time.

A rather sad ending to what should have been an entertaining afternoon for all concerned.

8th February 2003

Scorers:
Tries: Calvin, Matt (Chingford), Darrell Shaw
Convs: Cooke 2

Following a tortuous drive through East London's traffic grid-lock, a slightly below strength Wanderers 2nd XV arrived at Chingford, on the shores of the William Girling reservoir rather late for the intended 2:15 kick off.  The Fixtures Secretary received a certain degree of abuse for having provided extremely accurate but somewhat complicated directions!

The match got underway just after 2:30, with the Wanderers having had very little in the way of warm-up! As mentioned in a number of other match reports, this is something that the club need to sort out - although we were held up by traffic, it was the usual 45 minutes hanging around at the meet that really knocked us back!  Players really have to do their best to get to the Plough for the specified time - we don't just pick midday because it's easy, we pick it because we know how long it can take to get to a match!

As the Wanderers took to the field with just 13 men, Chingford kindly donated Gerry, for whom we were fortunately able to find a large enough shirt!  A scrappy first 15 minutes saw lots of errors from both sides and little sign of anyone breaking the gain line.  It was in one of the Wanderers' few successful back moves that Simon Cook pulled up with a back problem - something he has had for several years - and had to go off injured.

Chingford donated another player from their subs to keep the sides more or less evenly matched, and it was a further 10 minutes of the same uninventive play before Chingford were awarded a penalty in midfield about 30 metres out.  The kick was cleanly struck and the home side took a slender lead.  On the half hour mark, the Wanderers looked to have received another blow when young South African fly-half, Wayne Cooke, turned an ankle.  Whilst he was off the field, Chingford scored a text book try using the overlap, which was converted to give them a deserved 10 - 0 lead.

Ravaged by injuries, the Wanderers hung on for the remainder of the half.  Chingford were very generous in donating players to give the contest some meaning.  At half time, with Cooke back on the field, the Wanderers were now up to a full 15.  However, as the second half got into stride, Chingford were once again able to break the Wanderers line for another converted try to take them into a rather daunting 17 - 0 lead.  The lead up to this try had also left the Wanderers fullback, Iles, concussed and unable to continue!

However, the opportunity now came for the Wanderers to show that they are not the kind of side to lie down and take a beating!  In a clever piece of play, Calvin received a quick line out throw 5 metres out from the Chingford line and was able to dive in more or less unopposed.  Cooke's attempted conversion from out wide hit the cross bar!  17 - 5!

Unfortunately, any hopes that Chingford may have become complacent were dashed almost immediately as they managed to touch down a hack through for another try, this time unconverted, to extend the lead back to 22 - 5.  Despite this setback, the Wanderers were able to mount an immediate response of their own, with "Chingford"  Matt showing powerful running to break the last couple of tackles to go over in the corner.  The champagne moment of the game came when the ball fell over as Cooke went for the conversion; the fly-half calmly picked the ball up and hit a drop kick from the touch line straight between the uprights!  22 - 12!

Yet again, however, the Chingford side showed that they were not willing to give this one up and came back straight away with another unconverted try to take things to 27 - 12.  But the Wanderers were not yet beaten and came back once again through a surging break by Man of the Match, Gordon Young, finished off by hooker, Darrell Shaw.  Cooke converted from in front of the posts to pull things back to 27 - 19.

Chingford had the last word with yet another try to take the final score to 32 - 19.  A disappointing result to a fairly even contest.  The 3 tries that Chingford scored as immediate responses to our own tries were annoying - we should know better than to let our guard down having just put some points on the board.  However, we can learn from this and should not be too disheartened as the Chingford side clearly contained a number of experience players who have played a far higher level of rugby in their younger years!

A final thank you to the three Chingford boys who turned out for us - Gerry, Matt and Nigel - and to Chingford skipper, Barry Stott, for being kind enough to lend them to us to make a decent game of it!

15th February 2003

Scorers:

Tries: Wallbank, Horne 2, Gl Richards 2, Challinor 2, Janes 2
Convs: Ga Richards 4
 

The Thames Estuary is not well known for a tropical climate in mid February and it didn’t disappoint with near Siberian weather conditions greeting the Tangerine Nomads. The Commonwealth contingent was particularly ill-suited to these conditions and it has to be said there was a certain reluctance from this section of the team to take to the playing surface. This may have been a blessing in disguise, with the necessity to keep warm ensuring a frenzied-paced running game of Rugby Football, a clinical victory of 53 – 0 to the “Triumphant Tangerines” was achieved!

The day began with a selection crisis of monumental proportions, eleven players strong was not a good starting point but eventually the missing pieces to the ever changing jigsaw appeared and fell miraculously into place to form a strongly competitive outfit.

The game began with the visitors dominating the early exchanges. Powerful forward control complimented by dynamic back play resulted in the ball being played almost exclusively in the Pegasus-Palmerians half. Tey went close with the ball seeming to be grounded on the line however the match official saw otherwise and deemed it short awarding a scrum to release the pressure. Eventually this passage of play did produce fruits from the Wanderers labours with Wallbank the combative, Cockermouth Colossus careering over to open the Tangerine account.

From this point the Wanderers began to grasp the game by the scruff of the neck. The home side’s only response to the onslaught was to revert to the down field kick. This rather flawed option brought Janes, the dangerous full-back, into play. He was soon scything through the weak defence and predictably scored under the posts.

The rest of the half saw some memorable back play orchestrated by Titch in the 10 jersey and an increasingly dominant pack, led by the authoritative Glenn Richards at openside, advancing the Wanderers score. Wilkins and Gareth Richards were both strong on the charge in this period and with better support tries were sure to have come during this phase of the game.

The interval came with target No 1 achieved by the visitors, a healthy lead. The target for the second half was to prevent any scores against them while keeping the “For” tally ticking over. Immediately after the second period began, this target looked very much under pressure. From the whistle the Pegasus-Palmerian team looked a different proposition. With renewed vigour they began with some surging runs through the midfield forcing the Wanderers to concede a plethora of penalties close to their own line. At this point a try to the home side seemed inevitable. This, however, was not to be, a strong wheel by the Wanderers eight forced the home side to concede possession at the following scrum, Titch shaping to kick wrong footed his pursuers and then with a trademark shimmy was off like a shot. Tey, reading the play well, took the pass and with pace to burn, the outside centre left a trail of defenders in his wake. Only the Pegasus-Palmerians full-back managed to halt the irresistible advance on the line by holding the Zimbabwean short. This was not enough however and a short grubber kick sent the ball over the line where it was pounced on by Horne, the Wanderers skipper, to break the home side’s hearts.

With the stuffing knocked out of them, Pegasus-Palmerians were to offer little resistance for the duration of the game. Tries from Janes, Challinor and Glenn Richards were scored at regular intervals and Gareth Richard showed a little known talent as a place kicker.

The final stages showed the Wanderers pack at their best. Surging eight man drives, expertly marshalled by Herrmann, brought the visitors to within the opposing line once again. Only some desperate defence forcing the ball over the touch line prevented another score. The ensuing line out was emphatically won by Wilkins the towering tangerine totem. Precision delivery of the ball to Herrmann allowed the scrum half to find Titch at stand off. Horne, as always running the angle, took the short pass and cannoned over for his second try of the match, a well worked score for the whole team.

What should have been a straight forward conversion was delayed and eventually cancelled by a serious medical incident to the Pegasus–Palmerians stand-in scrum half. Arnold of the Wanderers, an A&E nurse, took immediate control to stabilise the situation and had no hesitation in calling for an ambulance. The referee seeing the seriousness of the incident called a halt to the game with the score as it stood.

To his credit Arnold was the consummate professional staying with injured player in bitter weather conditions until the arrival of the ambulance. Further drama ensued with what should have been a straightforward transfer to the nearby hospital inexcusably delayed by the ambulance falling foul of the treacherous playing surface. Only the timely intervention of two local fire engines saved the day. This correspondent shudders to think of the situation if “Green Goddesses” had been called upon to fulfil this duty.

The entire Wanderers club hope the injury to the Pegasus-Palmerian player was not as severe as first thought and wish him a speedy recovery to full fitness.