Vase Quarter Final

We were all slightly concerned on Saturday when both sides were changed and warmed up but no referee was to be found. Luckily this gave Stokes, on his birthday, time to creep in and get changed with not many people noticing his lateness!!! Eventually, the man in yellow turned up and the game was underway. I have lost the toss every game so far this season and Saturday was no exception. The Pulborough captain chose the strong wind in his favour for the first half and they used it well for the opening quarter and within minutes, Pulborough were ahead by 5 and pressing for more. Just like England, only stout defence kept wave after wave of attackers out. Every time we got our hands on the ball, a mistake or refereeing decision would hand the ball back to Pulborough, we hardly left our half at all for the first 20.

Slowly but surely, we started to control the play better but Pulborough were putting us under great pressure at ruck time, and we were having decision after decision going against us on the floor, their much larger pack was certainly making us work harder than we are used. Our makeshift centre combination of DeFriend and Baptist started to make some dents, the former through the middle, the latter round the edge, and so we started to inch our way down the pitch until we were actually playing in the opposition half. Tucker, again playing at 9, was constantly sniping around the fringes, Bridges, De La Haye and Redmond were carrying strongly and even the front row were showing some enthusiasm. In fact, it was Hogbin who broke and fed Redmond for the games turning point. The strong second row broke the line, strait through two would be defenders before stepping and leaving the next man for dead. With only the full back to beat, he timed his shimmy to perfection and cantered over the line to score under the posts, leaving the Pulborough 15 grasping thin air in his wake! Gray converted and the ref blew for the half with the score at 5 - 7.

We are not used to such a close half time scoreline and I had no need to spell out how important the next 40 was to our season. We knew that we now had the wind, and the confidence that we could score, so with one last squeeze, we got ready to receive the Pulborough restart. East Grinstead were a different team! Gray’s excellent positional kicking, Tucker’s quick tap penaltys and much better discipline from the whole team, all meant we were on the attack from the off and playing in the right areas. The oppo had been constantly warned for high tackles (Mainly because they were all two foot taller than us) and yet another on Tucker while racing to the line, resulted in a penalty try which Gray converted.

Pulborough heads started to drop and Gray took full advantage with a neat chip over the on-rushing defence. Stokes raced through to score a fine try on his birthday and finally we could relax and enjoy the final minutes. Last play was called and Tucker cleared to touch. A massive hurdle cleared towards our seasons goal of league and cup double.

Huge thanks to Pulborough for putting out an excellent side that tested us fully! If you ever fancy a friendly later in the season, please let me know! A good hard game played in the best of spirits. MOM this week has to go to Mikey for his moment of brilliance, I have never seen a better try from a second row - Well done mate! Unfortunately, I have just watched Mikey dislocate his kneecap playing for the colts. I really hope you are back soon mate! DOTD nearly went to Stokes for missing his train from London and arriving 10 minutes before kick off, however he redeemed himself by bringing the lovely Kate to watch us, so I will have to take this weeks honour, for forgetting my shirt and tie - sorry boys, rubbish example.

One more thing to mention was Joey Marriott coming on for his senior debut and making his dad very proud! Great Marriott tag team tackle at the end mate!