1st XV Archived News

Old Wimbledonian Rams 22pts - Old Reigatians 2XV 10: Played December 5th 2009

Match report by Luke

Saturday saw another fine performance from the Rams. Conditions were shocking and meant that handling at times was extremely difficult. We started slowly and Reigatians caught us napping, we were 5-0 down before we knew what had hit us. But we found our form soon after and after the forwards came close a couple of times the backs found soon inspiration and superb hands from Matt and Donavon put The Jackal in a huge whole which he finished off nicely.

Reigatians came back at us and bombed a high one into our in-goal area which caught us unawares, they finished off and we were back on the ropes again. Some good kicking from the Jackal meant soon after we were down in their half again. We were awarded a scrum and some cute moves saw us level again. We were given more good news when two of their players yellow carded in a short space of time. Poor Guygeboo got spear-tackle by the opposition SCRUM-HALF, all 35 kg's of him looked mightily miffed.

We couldn't seem to capitalise while they were off the park but as soon as they returned were stepped it up. The forwards were amazing! Maul after maul, scrum after scrum we gave it to them. We tackled everything that came our way and kept it tight when we needed to. Our win was down to their hard work, Koos crashed over and a short while later Paul joined him. Prior was superb in his last game for the Rams, carrying it up strongly and managed to smack over one of his four to make it 22-10 at the final whistle.

Old Wimbledonian Rams 29pts - Wimbledon 2XV 0: Played November 14th 2009

Match report by Luke

Saturday saw The Rams take on Wimbledon 2XV in what looked like a scene from The Perfect Storm. It was wet, windy and cold. The only thing to bring warnth to my heart was watching our boys run rampant in a true display of Ram rugby. The scoreline completely flattered our opponents as the whistle meant we were not allowed to play at all in the second half.

The game got off to a flying start for us as we were camped down in their half but we didn't utilise our early chances. Some sharp work from Douw saw him go crashing over. Steve has been getting upset recently about coming so close but never scoring. Well a great run downfield by Paul mixed with some good hands saw Steve hold onto one and put all those demons to rest. With the game beginning to break up a little Harry came into his own. Stealing ball everywhere and putting pressure on our opposition. In one of our plays an inside pass to him sent him surging downfield, some unbelievable dummy passing to nobody in particular saw the field open up in front him and he simply coasted over the line. This was followed shortly by some nice hands from Matt, Guzzle and Guygeboo which sent him over the line. The Jackal also had a decent afternoon and the crab-run has never looked so good.

The conditions meant that handling in the backs was difficult but Mattie marshalled our boys very well and, even though a good few balls were knocked on, we looked very good at times. It was a day for the forwards! Not since Leceister put the Dirt-tracker Boks to the sword has the scrum been demolished like that. Koos, Alex and Barry take a bow! They were aided admirably by Douw and Kurt, and in the second half Corrie. All made it a very long afternoon for our hosts. We came close to scoring on a number of occasions in the second half. Newby's Steve and Roy show some form after a long lay-off. Brettie, Paul and Prior made a great contribution to making sure we stayed out of danger. Our only try in second came off another strong scrum from which we went blind, I managed to hold onto one for a change and threw one to a rejuvenated looking Crick (in rejuvenated, I mean someone in Earfield is looking for their Webber lid) who went cruising over. This made it 29-0 and the end of the game.

Men of the Match: The entire front row! Outstanding!

Blunder Pants: 1) Practicing his golf swing whilst supposed to be watching the game in the first half. 2) Punching one of his own players and getting penalised for it. 3) Missing a sitter of a conversion. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you ....... Stuart Prior.

Old Wimbledonian Rams 38pts - Warlingham A2 0: Played November 7th 2009

Match report by Luke

Saturday saw us take on Warlingham A2 at home. The early kick off must have caught us unawares as it took us a long time to get into gear in this game.

In fairness, we showed Warlingham too much respect initially and were found wanting in defence once or twice and it was only through some scrambling D that we kept them out.

However, after 15 mins we found ourselves up field and were awarded a penalty in the red zone. Some quick thinking and a quick tap from Koos with a powerful leg-drive saw him crashing over. We improved from here on in but were still guilty of getting ourselves isolated and not using our support. But some persistent pressure paid off and very soon we were back down there and as Warlingham tried to clear their lines Danny charged down and scored off the loose ball. Being 10-0 up at half time meant we were by no means out of the woods.

It was the second half were our pack really began to dominate, turning over plenty of ball and numerous scrums. The tight five of Koos, Alex, Barry, Douw, Chris and Brett in the second half set the platform for excellent ball for the backs and for once our scrummie manged to find his radar better than in previous games. Brettie scored a beauty in the 2nd with some superb backing up.

Our loosies; Paul, Willem, Stu and Rocks in the second half, were extremely busy and loving the fantastic amount of clean ball we were getting. Our backs took and while to get going on Saturday and probably tried to force a couple of passes. However, they came into their own in the second half and Harry started to fire on all cylinders, providing Guy and Danny excellent opportunities.

Two of which lead to great breakaway tries for Guy and Harry. Anyone who has watched our last couple of games will surely agree with me that our two wingers Pieter and Steve continue to improve game on game and Saturday was no different and made life hell for Warlingham with strong running and D from them both.

Pieter was rewarded with a try in the 2nd half and Steve was rewarded with a HUGE hit in the first half. Carloni graced us with his presence in the first half a looked solid under the high ball and kept the oppo guessing with his crab-like running and his replacement Scotty seemed to be having a field-day with plenty an ball and some probing, mazey running upfield. To be perfectly honest, the result was never in doubt in the second half and we were a credit to all Rams with some brilliant creative play in the second half. Final score 38-0!

Chris thought it would be good of him to congratulate our FEMALE ref for an excellent performance with the whistle (seriously, best ref we've had so far) and decided to jump in the showers with her afterwards and then have the cheek to say that no-one had told him he wasn't allowed in there with her. No means No Chris!

Cobham 2XV 16pts - Old Wimbledonian Rams 17pts: Played October 24th 2009

Match report by Luke

Last Saturday saw the Rams take on Cobham in our first taste of proper winter rugby (the fields aren't going to get any drier). After a pretty hectic start and some rubbish organisation from me we managed to find our talisman.

We were about to arrive at Cobham with 14 men when we phoned up grandpa Stone Cold and told him "It is time!" He managed to dig his boots out of the attic and came down to join us.

After a very quick warm up we soon found ourselves playing against some fairly hefty fellows. Kurt was keen to show up the club who had asked him to send in his measurements and then told him he was too small to play rugby.

But things didn't start well for us and very soon after kick-off Guy found himself staring up at the afternoon sky after being bounced solidly by the opposition scrum-half! Yes, highly embarrassing but deserved when I heard that Guy has been secretly saying he could do a better captaincy job! This put Cobham down in our half, we gave a silly penalty away resulting in us being three points down.

But things looked up for us when some great work from the forwards put us in good field position and some neat work from the backs meant Guygeboo went crashing over. We missed the penalty which meant we went into the break 6-5 after Cobham got another penalty.

The word at the break was that we were making things far too difficult for ourselves; fifty-fifty passes and too many bodies on the ground at ruck time meant a ton of set pieces. We were rushing our ball as well which meant my already suspect distribution went from poor to "bugger, maybe koos should play scrum-half". However, through alot of self-determination and many four-letter words from my pack we managed to provide Mattie and the backs a small handful of opportunities which they did very well with.

In hindsight, the scoreboard flattered them in the second half. We were camped down there for most of it and their only saving grace was the ref who seemed to only know how to say "shut-up nine". The forwards were dominate throughout and it was fantastic to see some dangling legs on occasion as we drilled the daylights out of them at scrum time. Even in the mauls, one of our weaker points, looked very impressive and I think it is a facet of our game we don't use enough. Our backs, with what little ball they had, looked good with some magical moments from Mattie and some powerful runing from Guygeboo and Harry. The most improved player was by far Steve, who looked very confident when running it up from the back and his strong runs gave Cobham sore heads all afternoon. Rocks gave a great account of himself on the wing; and even though he only has two gears (forward and more forward), used them well. Guzzle was his usual busy self but as the game went on it was evident that the many months of involuntary celibacy were taking their toll and one could have been mistaken for thinking Carloni was showering with the team after the game with an atmosphere that can only be described as tense when Guzzle stepped into the showers (Rory said that he has resorted to looking up Thai-boys in desperation). Comments were muttered about the way Guzzle rubbed up against Stu and a uncomfortable hush fell over the changeroom. Maybe the position of Full-back is cursed!

We scored two neat tries in the second half, the second of which being an absolute peach and show-cased Ram-rugby at it's best when a great little one-two between Rory and Koos at the front of the lineout caught Cobham fast asleep allowed Rory a stroll over the line to finish off. Cobham were not done yet and we were again guilty of forcing one or two passes which resulted in turn over ball. Rocks had been saying all game he wanted an opportunity to show his pace but unfortunately this time around he looked as though he was turning in porridge to chase his opposite number, resulting in a try. All of a sudden it was 17-16 with about ten to go and the pressure was really on. We had an opportunity to extend our one point lead with an easy penalty but when I asked Stu Prior, returning for his first game of the season after eating all the pies in Spain, to have a go he turned a shade of yellow and sadly shock his head. Harry had previously said he was jealous of all the attention Carloni receives and wanted the Blunder pants for himself, well he tried his hardest and after a promising surge down field for us, he threw a shocker intercept into the hands of the fattest winger I have seen in a long time. As if this wasn't bad enough, his teammates watched in horror as the prop/winger began to actually pull away from the chasing Harry. We managed to scramble some defense but were found to have slowed down the ball and gave Cobham an easy penalty for the win. Lucky their kicker, who looked as though he couldn't miss earlier on, pushed it wide. Thinking we were out of the woods we again relaxed too much and gave away another soft penalty in the dying minutes. This time he pulled it left we found ourselves wondering, with the final whistle sounding, how on Earth did we let it get so close? Final score, Rams 17 Cobham 16. When thinking about a man of the match, the choice was easy. Even though the many many years have taken there toll of him and on numerous occasions he could be seen with his hands on his knees, Stone Cold was his usual uncompromising self and the Rams are thrilled to have him out of retirement as he has promised to make himself available for every game for the rest of the season.

Gents, there is no game this weekend but I expect a full turnout for the next game in two weeks at home against Warlingham (KO 14:30). Please also pencil in the following weekend (14 November) against Wimbledon. It is an away game but their club is right around the corner and it has been planned that it is then that we will have the mother of all fines meetings afterwards, at our club. If anyone is keen on a game this weekend their is a club fixture on the go, please send your availabilities to John Bennett. One last thing gents, please set up your direct debit with the club if you plan on playing throughout the season and have not done so yet. It lands up being much cheaper and less hassle for me. Details of how to do this can be found on the club website.

Cobham 2XV 16pts - Old Wimbledonian Rams 17pts: Played October 17th 2009

Last Saturday saw the Rams take on Cobham in our first taste of proper winter rugby (the fields aren't going to get any drier). After a pretty hectic start and some rubbish organisation from me we managed to find our talisman.

We were about to arrive at Cobham with 14 men when we phoned up grandpa Stone Cold and told him "It is time!" He managed to dig his boots out of the attic and came down to join us.

After a very quick warm up we soon found ourselves playing against some fairly hefty fellows. Kurt was keen to show up the club who had asked him to send in his measurements and then told him he was too small to play rugby.

But things didn't start well for us and very soon after kick-off Guy found himself staring up at the afternoon sky after being bounced solidly by the opposition scrum-half! Yes, highly embarrassing but deserved when I heard that Guy has been secretly saying he could do a better captaincy job! This put Cobham down in our half, we gave a silly penalty away resulting in us being three points down.

But things looked up for us when some great work from the forwards put us in good field position and some neat work from the backs meant Guygeboo went crashing over. We missed the penalty which meant we went into the break 6-5 after Cobham got another penalty.

The word at the break was that we were making things far too difficult for ourselves; fifty-fifty passes and too many bodies on the ground at ruck time meant a ton of set pieces. We were rushing our ball as well which meant my already suspect distribution went from poor to "bugger, maybe koos should play scrum-half". However, through alot of self-determination and many four-letter words from my pack we managed to provide Mattie and the backs a small handful of opportunities which they did very well with.

In hindsight, the scoreboard flattered them in the second half. We were camped down there for most of it and their only saving grace was the ref who seemed to only know how to say "shut-up nine". The forwards were dominate throughout and it was fantastic to see some dangling legs on occasion as we drilled the daylights out of them at scrum time. Even in the mauls, one of our weaker points, looked very impressive and I think it is a facet of our game we don't use enough. Our backs, with what little ball they had, looked good with some magical moments from Mattie and some powerful runing from Guygeboo and Harry. The most improved player was by far Steve, who looked very confident when running it up from the back and his strong runs gave Cobham sore heads all afternoon. Rocks gave a great account of himself on the wing; and even though he only has two gears (forward and more forward), used them well. Guzzle was his usual busy self but as the game went on it was evident that the many months of involuntary celibacy were taking their toll and one could have been mistaken for thinking Carloni was showering with the team after the game with an atmosphere that can only be described as tense when Guzzle stepped into the showers (Rory said that he has resorted to looking up Thai-boys in desperation). Comments were muttered about the way Guzzle rubbed up against Stu and a uncomfortable hush fell over the changeroom. Maybe the position of Full-back is cursed!

We scored two neat tries in the second half, the second of which being an absolute peach and show-cased Ram-rugby at it's best when a great little one-two between Rory and Koos at the front of the lineout caught Cobham fast asleep allowed Rory a stroll over the line to finish off. Cobham were not done yet and we were again guilty of forcing one or two passes which resulted in turn over ball. Rocks had been saying all game he wanted an opportunity to show his pace but unfortunately this time around he looked as though he was turning in porridge to chase his opposite number, resulting in a try. All of a sudden it was 17-16 with about ten to go and the pressure was really on. We had an opportunity to extend our one point lead with an easy penalty but when I asked Stu Prior, returning for his first game of the season after eating all the pies in Spain, to have a go he turned a shade of yellow and sadly shock his head. Harry had previously said he was jealous of all the attention Carloni receives and wanted the Blunder pants for himself, well he tried his hardest and after a promising surge down field for us, he threw a shocker intercept into the hands of the fattest winger I have seen in a long time. As if this wasn't bad enough, his teammates watched in horror as the prop/winger began to actually pull away from the chasing Harry. We managed to scramble some defense but were found to have slowed down the ball and gave Cobham an easy penalty for the win. Lucky their kicker, who looked as though he couldn't miss earlier on, pushed it wide. Thinking we were out of the woods we again relaxed too much and gave away another soft penalty in the dying minutes. This time he pulled it left we found ourselves wondering, with the final whistle sounding, how on Earth did we let it get so close? Final score, Rams 17 Cobham 16. When thinking about a man of the match, the choice was easy. Even though the many many years have taken there toll of him and on numerous occasions he could be seen with his hands on his knees, Stone Cold was his usual uncompromising self and the Rams are thrilled to have him out of retirement as he has promised to make himself available for every game for the rest of the season.

Gents, there is no game this weekend but I expect a full turnout for the next game in two weeks at home against Warlingham (KO 14:30). Please also pencil in the following weekend (14 November) against Wimbledon. It is an away game but their club is right around the corner and it has been planned that it is then that we will have the mother of all fines meetings afterwards, at our club. If anyone is keen on a game this weekend their is a club fixture on the go, please send your availabilities to John Bennett. One last thing gents, please set up your direct debit with the club if you plan on playing throughout the season and have not done so yet. It lands up being much cheaper and less hassle for me. Details of how to do this can be found on the club website.

Looking forward to two weeks time! Until then ....

Sutton & Epsom 3rd XV 5pts - Old Wimbledonian Rams 26pts: Played October 10th 2009

Match Report By Luke

Saturday saw the Rams take on the fairly "hefty" men from Sutton and Epsom. After a pretty disorganised start, arriving at their clubhouse only to be sent a few miles away to what can be described as a goat-track with nowhere to change (Carloni wasn't too disappointed), we started slowly.

Unfortunately I lost the toss and we were left to play downhill (10 degree decline) for the first half and were perhaps guilty of not keeping possession and turning the ball over too often (most likely through one of my numerous knock-ons). However, there were a couple of nice busts up-field. Harrox enjoying the services of Matt putting him into a couple of nice holes. It was at the end of one of these long movements when Douw found himself 5 meters out and a short burst later he was over!

Harrox was playing the villain at this stage of the game as he missed his second shot at goal slap-bang in front of the poles. Undoubtedly he will consume for this at the next fines. A short while later, Mattie shimmied beautifully and found himself through the defensive line. Most thought he would go all the way but maybe old-age is catching up with him or the stress of finding out he is going to be having a daughter and going to need to keep her safe from the likes of The Jackal but he got reeled in by the defense. Blushes were spared by some great backing-up and Guyeboo grabbed one at his toes to flop over. This saw us go into the break 12-0 up.

The second half found us becoming frustrated. Perhaps it was playing up the incline, perhaps the fitness or perhaps we were still wondering why Carloni had brought a 'laptop' bag with nothing but his hair gel in to the game, but we went sleep for quite a while and let Sutton and Epsom back into the game, allowing them a dubious try after 15 mins.

Sutton and Epsom were back at us soon after and Rocks found himself on the wrong side of the ref and conceded two unforgivable penalties in the red zone, the second one earning him a 10 minute breather. With this complete blunder, meaning we had to go to uncontested scrums and concede a league point, I definitely heard Carloni shriek with glee and mumble to himself (in one of his deranged meanders) "I curse you blunder pants".

However, we pulled ourselves together and were much more focused in the last 20. Backs and forwards gelled very well and put pressure on our opposition, forcing errors. One of these found ourselves down in their 22 with Harrox rounding off a try which could have gone through all 15 hands,great stuff and great hands especially from Pieter, picking the ball up from under his toes to get us up to within inches.

Moving into the final minutes our oppo were looking hagged and we managed to pick out the most unfit looking rugby player ever (looked like he could have gone into cardiac arrest at any moment, gave all front ranker's a bad name) to get one more at the death. This made it 26-5 at the final whistle.

Our men played well throughout the game, forwards were particularly strong. Even after the 40th scrum they were tireless (except maybe for Bazza). Our debutant's, Kurt, Harry, Bruce and Bazza, all gave fantastic accounts of themselves and seemed to thrive in team which likes to toss the ball around. Kurt was very busy all game and made a nuisance of himself in the lineouts. Harry, the newly converted back, made some strong busts up field and looked solid in defence. Bruce come on for Bazza and immediately made and impact, stealing a vital ball on our line when the oppo were advancing. Bazza "Doza" Gas looked like a seasoned vet in the first half, providing clean ball from the base of the scrum and creating some good opportunities. He left the field in the second half after forgetting his lungs on the side of the field at the break.

When it came time to pick a man of match it was an easy decision. Mattie read did very little wrong and obviously was inspired by Pieter calling him an "unlikely looking rugby player" before the game. He was solid on defense and created numerous opportunities for those outside him. We capped off the day with a quick impromptu fines meeting back at our clubhouse. Rocks made amends to his team with a fantastic display, spray-painting the grass with a triple-play after receiving his fine for the yellow card.

Our next fixture is against Barnes at home next weekend. I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible with plenty of support.