Club news

Law Soc vs Old Rutlishians - 07/03/08

Undeterred, we received the kick off with a strong wind to our backs and planned to camp down in the Old Ruts 22, keeping the scoreboard ticking over, before defending a solid lead in the second half. IHowever, the teams reached half time deadlocked at 0-0 and having spend the majority of the half defending on our own line! As feared Old Ruts front five were gaining the upper hand, consistently winning the set pieces and demanding some canny play from Robbie Mackay playing at scrum-half and Ed Fanning at No8.

We turned around expecting Old Ruts to kick and kick they did. Playing into the wind we were forced to run almost everything. Debutant Jack Newberry had a fantastic game, constantly slicing in from his wing, looking for work and causing havoc in their back line. In sharp contrast to their tough old forward pack, Old Ruts appeared to have drafted in their local under 14’s three quarter line. Dom Magee and Tanaka ‘the Weapon’ Pari devastated them with some clattering tackles and strong straight running. Our breakthrough came thanks to a handling error by their outside centre 10 meters from our own line. The dashing Welsh full back Lewis Wicks pounced on the ball and sprinted the length of the pitch to score under the posts, converted by the author. 7-0 to the Law.

Despite shunting us back on every scrum and spoiling our lineout ball, Old Ruts’ heads dropped. A loose scrummage ball was scooped up and shipped down a large blind side into the hands of ‘the Weapon’. He had a lot to do but scythed through four pre pubescent tackles to touch down with power. The wind stole the conversion; 12-0.

Old Ruts replied with some good pressure and deservedly scored an unconverted try. The Law then strung together a wonderful exhibition of multi-phased rugby (who said we needed training?). Attacking the short side within their 22, the author threw an audacious dummy and slipped the ball inside to the impressive Steve Smulovic who bust through their line to touch down, another conversion made the score 19-5.

As we looked to close out the final minutes our forwards refused to be beaten in the close battle. The front row of seasoned flankers; Matt Hodder, Ben Halperin and JC scrapped and covered every blade of grass- more than making up for the weak set piece. Glendon Slater and Rich Crowley came off the bench and impressed with strong running from deep. Both sides traded penalties in the fading minutes and a last ditch consolation try did little to appease a defeat for Old Ruts. It ended 22-15; a fabulous victory for the Law.  

Law Soc vs Chipstead - 03/11/07

After a disapointing loss to Old Walcountians the previous week the Law were keen to bounce back against league leaders Chipstead. Unfortunately injuries and unavailability meant a reshuffle was needed but the team took the field ready to fight for victory.

In the end the Law produced a fine defensive effort, with several tackles and turnovers that amazed the home crowd, to limit Chipstead to a couple of tries - especially considering the Law played a quarter of the match with 14 men. It was a gutsy and battling performance in defence, with some flashes of lovely play in attack - though sadly the forwards could rarely give the backs the platform in the opposition 22 that would have ensured that the attacks were not in vain.

Plenty to build on for the Teddington game though and everyone on the team can be proud of their performance.