 |
Writtle Wanderers RUFC |
|
|
Writtle Wanderers RUFC |
October 2004 Match Reports
----------
Scorers:
Tries: Clark, Brown, Morris
Convs: Clark
Pen: McKenna
Man of the Match: Dave McKenna
Essex President's Shield Campaign Gets Underway
Writtle Wanderers this week played
host to Clacton-on-Sea in the Essex County RFU President's Shield. The home side
were keen to keep their 100% record
and put on a good display for the home supporters.
From the kick off it was clear that the
opposition were very keen and well drilled, but within five minutes the
Wanderers had scored through a 50 metre run by full-back, Steve Clark. Gathering
a sliced kick in the Wanderers' half, he evaded several would be tacklers before
side stepping his opposite number to score near the posts. He converted his own
try to give the hosts a 7-0 lead.
Clacton came straight back and through
good forward play put pressure on the Wanderers' defence, but could find no way
through. Eventually the Wanderers' forwards turned the ball over and Clark made
good yards down the right hand side to put centre, Tim Janes, through for a try
only for the touch judge to call a foot in touch. However, the Wanderers
maintained the pressure from this position and from a five metre scrum, winger
Mike Brown managed to score an unconverted try in the left hand corner.
The visitors came straight back
from the restart and, through their winger, reached the Wanderers' 22.
Again the defence held firm with the visitors eventually giving away a penalty.
The Wanderers missed touch with the kick and Clacton ran it back and, through some
good interplay between forwards and backs, came close to scoring only to lose
the ball just short of the line. A few minutes later the Wanderers found
themselves in a similar attacking position and some good ball handling saw
second row, Matt Morris, go over from 5 metres out. Clacton finished the first
half the stronger and would have scored if they had not
knocked on when clean through!
The start of the second half saw a sustained period of pressure by the visitors
who continually tested the stout Wanderers' defence, but still they could find
no way through. As the game wore on, both sides began to tire and, with twenty
minutes to go, the home side made several substitutions. The visitors once again
came close to the Wanderers' line and this time made no mistake with the big
prop charging over for a try. The score fired up the visitors and several
minutes later they scored again in the left hand corner, this made the score
17-10 with ten minutes to play. Clacton kept up the pressure and felt they might
snatch victory, but the Wanderers' forwards again turned over the ball.
Keeping the ball tight, they found themselves in the opposition's 22, where they
were awarded a penalty which was converted by captain, Dave McKenna. The
visitors tried one last time to breach the line but time was against them and
the final whistle blew!
----------
Scorers:
Tries: Janes 3
Convs: Clark 2
Pens: Clark 2
Man of the Match: Tim Janes
Win Puts Wanderers Joint Top
Writtle Wanderers' first competitive league game in Essex 3 resulted in an away victory against Pegasus Palmerians.
The visitors started well, spending the first 15 minutes in Pegasus’ half, with fly half and assistant coach, Wolfgang Kanz, making good field position by kicking for touch. The opposition number 10 returned the kick from the resulting line out, giving the advantage back to the Writtle forwards. They maintained possession with good mauling, allowing No 8 and captain, David McKenna, to pick up and feed to his backs. The ball went through the hands, resulting in Tim Janes scoring a well worked try. Sustained pressure saw the Wanderers remain in attack, coming away with a penalty and a second try from Janes. Steve Clark converted to take the score to 15 – 0 at half time.
Pegasus looked to have found their rhythm in the second half, keeping the visitors in their own end with a sustained period of possession, but never really looked like breaking through the defence to score. The Wanderers' forwards regained the ball to provide a good platform from which their backs could attack. With penetrating runs from Clark and effective recycling of the ball from the pack, Janes completed his hat trick, which Clark converted. A consolation penalty for the Palmerians on full time prevented the whitewash. All in all a satisfying day for the Writtle Wanderers, a win in the league and 20 players running out for the seconds!
----------
Scorer:
Drop Goal: Cleare
Man of the Match: Mike Cleare
Wanderers 2nd XV Outclassed, But Chairman's Fiver Claimed!
From the kick off the Wanderers knew that this was to be a very tough game. Millwall 3rds (?) were a very fit and well drilled side and made their presence felt from the start. The game started well for the Wanderers, who fielded some new players and after putting pressure on the oppositions line, debut fly half Mike Cleare slotted a perfect drop goal to claim the Chairman's long standing wager of a £5! Unfortunately these proved to be the only points the Wanderers would score!
From the restart, the Millwall forwards retained the ball well and made good ground into Wanderers' territory. The ball was fed to their backs, who were able to run in a good try. This move was repeated a few minutes later resulting in another try for the visitors, who now led 3-14.
From this point on Millwall
started to dominate the game using their big, strong running backs to crash
through the Wanderers' tackling. However, the Wanderers' defence managed
to hold firm, never making it easy for the opposition. The Wanderers' forwards
started to get stuck in and took the game to Millwall with some good physical
rugby being played by both sides. Just as the Wanderers started to come into the
game as the first half drew to a close, Millwall managed to score their third
try of the half. The conversion of this gave them a 21-3 half-time lead.
The second half started well for the Wanderers, who came out firing and started
to test the Millwall defence. They came close to scoring through
replacement Mark Sizer, but unfortunately the ball was held up over the line.
There then followed a period where both teams took turns to try and break their
opponent's defence, like two heavyweight boxers trading punches.
Eventually one of Millwall's punches resulted in them exposing a gap and the
winger went over in the corner for a try. This was converted to give the
visitors a 3-28 lead.
To their credit, the Wanderers never let their heads drop and stuck to the task of playing rugby, with some big hits coming in from the new players. As the game wore on the lack of fitness of both sides began to show, but Millwall still had enough in the tanks to make one more assault on the Wanderers' line. They managed to cross for a converted try this gave the visitors a 3 - 35 victory.
----------
Scorers:
Tries: Kanz, Messo, Clark
Conv: Clark
Pens: Clark 3
Man of the Match: Sean
Culleton
Wanderers Grind Out Result!
Another great turnout saw both
Wanderers' sides travel to Basildon on a wet & windy day. Injuries picked up in
recent games saw the 1st XV with a slightly different look about it with 2nd XV
regulars being rewarded for their efforts with 1st XV "caps".
The men in orange started brightly with early pressure in the Basildon 22. A
break down the right flank took the Wanderers closer still to the try line.
Scrum half Szyczak showed great vision to launch a cheeky box kick into the
scoring zone & Clark collected to score the opening try. The early score
seemed to work against the Wanderers as more than one player wrongly thought
that they were in for an easy game!
Basildon were a strong, physical
side and played to their strengths, rucking & mauling their way up the field.
For once the Wanderers' defence was being questioned and not really coming up
with the right answers! Sure enough, following several phases from the boys from
Baz, they scored their first try of the game.
This score acted as a good reminder that the Wanderers had a serious game on
their hands. Some better play followed and was rewarded with a fine try from
Kanz. The player coach looked to have isolated himself as he headed towards the
left touch line but superb interplay with winger Horne saw the try scored. Clark
was not having the best of days with the boot and failed to convert.
Again the foot was taken off the pedal somewhat and Basildon took their chance
to come back with another well worked try. A stern talking to from coach
Rawlinson at half time seemed to awaken many from their slumber and the second
half saw an improved performance. In particular, the fiery Culleton took it
upon himself to rally the troops & lead by example.
The Wanderers managed to break their opponents' defence with a try that was very
pleasing on the eye and one that back's coach, Kanz, can take great credit for
having introduced the move in training. Great play from the back saw Messo
diving spectacularly for the line to score. The onlooking photographer from the
local paper must have been truly grateful for such an action shot!
Would this be the moment that the Wanderers finally got away from their
opponents? Sadly not and a further score saw the sides locked at 17 points each.
The Wanderers maintained the pressure and managed to force several errors
resulting in penalties. Clark, who has not been at his best with the boot so far
this season, managed to find his range and slotted over all three chances on
offer taking the final score to 26-17.
The game was a good test of character for the side and it was great to see that
even when not playing at their best, this side can still get results. The only
real negatives were injuries to key men Rantell & skipper McKenna, who could
both be missing for some weeks.
----------
Scorers:
Tries: Gillett, Blythe, Benning
Conv: Cleare
Pen: Cleare
Man of the Match: Tom Rowe
2nd XV Dig Deep to Claim Win!
On a day that saw both Wanderers' sides travelling to Basildon, the 2nd XV were taking on a side that are a full three divisions above them in the Merit Table! It was therefore always likely to be a tough fixture, on a muddy pitch in drizzly rain and a fair breeze!
Your correspondent was unfortunately buried in the front row of the scrum for this game and consequently cannot recall all that much about it, so please forgive the rather sketchy nature of this report! The Wanderers opened the scoring with a penalty kick by fly-half, Cleare. I seem to recall that the two back line tries - by the ever improving Blythe and speedster Benning - were both scored out wide and not converted, but a try by the impressive young Gillett, playing eighth man, was closer in and converted.
With the opposition scoring three tries of their own and converting two of them, it was only once the referee had been approached by the Wanderers President after the game that the Wanderers were confirmed the winners! The referee had mistakenly put down our penalty as a conversion!
Two things stand out from the game to me - one good, one bad! The good side was the grit and determination shown by the whole side in dealing with a bigger Basildon side. The home side had one or two key players who caused a lot of problems for the visitor's defence, but despite the inevitable few missed tackles and handling errors, every member of team can be proud of having stuck at it and clung onto the win!
The real disappointment on the day was the continued habit of talking back to the referee and bitching amongst fellow players! Talking back almost cost us the game when our fly-half was sin-binned whilst lining up a conversion attempt - which he was then not allowed to take! I'm not sure what the rules are on this or of the actual circumstances of the offence, but throughout the game several players had fallen into the referees bad books for criticising decisions and complaining about penalty and knock on decisions!
Although both teams were guilty of this, we must learn that it is a complete waste of time! No referee will be impressed and thank you for trying to help him with a decision - and arguing after he has made it has never, ever, persuaded a referee to change his mind! If we can cut out this element of our game then we will be a better team for it - we will concentrate on our game and get the referees on our side against sides who wind them up!
Finally - I have to turn to the bitching amongst the team in general! There are players in the 2nd XV with lots of experience in the game and others who are playing for the first time this season; there are those who are very capable of playing at a much higher level and those who just want to have a friendly run-about once or twice a month for a bit of fun. This will inevitably mean that mistakes will happen, balls will be dropped, tackles will be missed, etc. What we all have to remember is that no-one does any of this deliberately - and it will do no good at all to have a go at anyone as a result! We must all take responsibility for encouraging all our new players and generally helping with a little coaching - so let's work on improving this and building up a great team spirit in the 2nds!
----------
Scorers:
Tries: Kanz 2, Cansell, Manson,
Redfern, Dempsey, Janes, Clark
Convs: Clark 4
Man of the Match: Jack Redfern
Wanderers Win Puts Them on Top!
Saturday saw Writtle Wanderers at
home in their third Essex 3 fixture of the season against Kings Cross Steelers.
Having suffered several injuries to key players last week - including captain
McKenna and flanker Rantell - there was a different look to the Wanderers' line
up, with a number of older and heavier forwards being pressed into service!
With the conditions being rather wet and blustery, this was possibly to their
benefit as the game was not one that looked like seeing much width being put on
the ball!
The forwards soon got the scoring underway with good handling and a well worked
No. 8 move which saw Jack Redfern score. They continued to control play,
providing safe ball for the half backs, enabling fly-half, Kanz, to break
through the defence and score. It was unrelenting for the visitors as both
forwards and backs demonstrated good ball retention, despite the tough handling
conditions, with Manson, Kanz and Janes all taking advantage of their field
position to score more tries. A try and 2 conversions from full-back, Clark,
took the half time score to 34 – 0.
Despite some good forward play by the Steelers, they couldn’t break through the Wanderers' defence and the tries continued in the second half, with a scurry over the top of a try line maul for prop Cansell. The backs maintained the non-stop pressure with another score which saw the Wanderers edge toward a half century of points. However, with injuries and a yellow card reducing the home side to 13 men (all allowed subs having been used), the Wanderers were forced to weather a brave fight-back by the Londoners.
With a little more space to work in and the Writtle side's defence stretched, the Kings Cross side were able to put together some sustained attacks. The way the Writtle side lifted their game to cover the gaps and defend their line, despite the game already being safe, was one of the most pleasing aspects of the day. The game finished with a score of 48 - 0, which was just sufficient to take the Wanderers top of Essex 3 on points difference.
----------
Scorers:
Tries: Blythe 2, Cleare 2, S. Cook
2, Denenga 2, Iles 2, Rowan, Chandler, Arnold
Convs: Cleare 6
Man of the Match: Mike Cleare
Wanderers 2nd XV Blitz Rayleigh
Writtle kicked off the game with
the wind in their favour and it wasn’t long before they stretched the Rayleigh
defence and scored in the corner, which Cleare slotted perfectly. Not long
after that Blythe powered through 3 defenders and scored his first of the game
which Cleare again converted. Straight after that Blythe picked up again
from his own half and sprinted the length of the pitch to get his 2nd try.
A few moments more into the game a 5 metre scrum was awarded to the Wanderers
and Cleare swapped Rowan to No.8 and drew the Rayleigh defence wide so Rowan
could power over for his try, Cleare converted and a few more tries were added
to the tally with some amazing chip kicks from the Writtle No.10 and for centre
Denenga to score 2.
Half time Wanderers 50 Rayleigh 0.
The game proved to be closer in the 2nd half with fresh legs on for the Writtle
boys and playing against the strong wind, but it wasn’t long before Simon Cook
added 2 more to the Black and Orange Giants. Rowan proved he's still got
it in him with a marvellous break and popping to Cleare (aka Jonny) to score
his first of the game under the posts.
The Writtle prop (who wont be named) obviously had shaken hands with the Kings
Cross team before the game as the ball slipped from his grasp when he was over
the try line!!! Captain and Writtle Legend, Gary Hall, was vocal
throughout and kept the Wanderers focused on the game as a cricket score was
being written.
Fly Half, Cleare, made his opposite number feel like a schoolboy as he dummied
and sidestepped to run the length of the pitch to score his 2nd which he
converted again. However Rayleigh never stopped trying and Writtle
respected that!
Fantastic result for the Wanderers!
----------
Scorers:
Tries: Janes 2, Kanz, Clark, Cleare
Convs: Clark 4
Pens: Clark 2
Man of the Match: Gary Hall
Wanderers Grind Out Victory
Writtle Wanderers made the trip to Upminster on Saturday to play Old Cooperians in what proved to be a frustrating game to watch. The Wanderers struggled to find their flowing style of rugby and the first thirty minutes was punctuated by infringements from both sides. Jack Redfern attempted to get the forwards going with some darting runs around the fringes. The opposition continued to infringe, allowing the Wanderers to record the first two scores with penalties.
Neither team could really take
control of the game, although Writtle scored the first try with some good
individual work by winger, Mike Cleare, who chip kicked the defence to score.
Towards the end of the half the Wanderers showed what was to come with a catch a
drive from the line out and a well executed rolling maul that allowed the backs
to practise their own moves, releasing Cleare and Clark, who were only prevented
from scoring by some good tackling. However, a well worked try from the hosts
took the half time score to 5 – 11.
Old Cooperians dominated the start of the second half, with the Wanderers
struggling to get involved, resulting in the Old C’s breaking through the
defensive line to edge ahead, 12 - 11. This provided the visitors with the
impetus they needed and finally saw them step up a gear, aided by the
introduction of Gary Hall on the flank, who provided the forwards with a target
to aim for in attack. The last fifteen minutes saw the Wanderers run in four
tries by Kanz, Janes (2), who picked out some great attacking lines of running,
and Clark, who converted them all to take the final score to 12 – 39, which in
the end flattered the visitors and masked the closeness of the game.
----------
Scorers:
Try: Bernerd Denenga
Conv: Grant Giles
Man of the Match: Graham Gillett
Wanderers 2nd XV Put Up Brave Fight
With a number of absentees and injuries leading to a rather makeshift team, the Wanderers 2nds still managed to put on a performance full of determination and effort against one of the leading sides in this division of the Merit Table. Unfortunately, no-one was present to submit a match report, but it was pleasing to hear that a number of new faces made their first appearances for the club and enjoyed the experience. If this level of enthusiasm and commitment continues, the season will be a success regardless of the actual results!
----------