Written by Alex Lipscombe

Following a successful league winning season securing promotion to Surrey 3, the men’s 1st XVs attention was thoroughly fixated on the cup semi final fixture against Old Hamptonians. Vengeance was on the minds of many of the boys who had played in the league away fixture. The only blemish on the perfect face of the SCRFC season needed popping, and pop it did. Little did we know we were in for a thriller.

Pre-match bbq had been a success thanks to the efforts of trusted club stewards Tobias and Owen, and the SCRFC faithful turned out in their tens to support the lads. There was a raw atmosphere in and around the ground, with the players being asked to step up their mentality and focus in response to the last outing against today’s oppo. The warm up was intense and everything was falling in to place, the author of this article even managed to make it through the game of touch without dropping the ball true to form. And with stretches stretched and usual inspirational talk given the boys were off.

Knowing the strengths of the oppo, being a handy back line who tried to play champagne stuff, the game plan was simple. Physical bombardment. Make use of the large amount of ‘big bois’ and give them hell. It was all going to plan for about 5 minutes until Captain Freddy Green sporting a new, less free flowing hair cut, took a bad landing on his ankle, and was forced out of the day’s proceedings. This paved the way for club veteran Jack ‘Counsellor’ Holborn to come on and discover the fitness of 15 years prior, stepping into flanker moving Matt ‘Rocky’ Doherty to 8. This was the first of the many back row changes in the game. Focus may have been lost during the furore, which led to OHRFC taking the lead through some good footwork and ankle breaking steps, credit where its due.

The changes kept on coming and apprentice prop Alex Lipscombe was on for Michael Parker who was feeling pain in the neck. Although it may have been a way to distract from the fines tsar nearly being late to warm up in advance. The scrum stayed steady, albeit executing club president’s Bob Dean’s famous ‘squeeze’ call on the scrum was difficult given snug fit of the 2 shirt around the hookers summer body in progress. There seemed to be an endless run of scrums, and they take it out of you, so the author apologises in advance if any of the finer details are missed given the fact he sits writing this trying to recover from the outer-body experience of an endless stream of scrums. He also sits here starting to appreciate why Bob loves them so much, as driving back a 21 year old uni lad when you’re several stone heavier really makes you feel like a big man.

With these changes, the dominant pack trundled the Hamptonians resistance over their own line from close range, allowing 9 Tom O’Connor to touch down. Tom had a strong performance all round, winning Man of the match. The pendulum had swung back again in the favour of Strets with some nice hands from the backs off the back of a scrum which resulted in a penalty try awarded and yellow card for a deliberate knock on. Correct call from the referee, no argument from either side. This led to Strets going in 14-7 at half time.

The author of this report does not fully recall all the events of the second half as what ensued was essentially a cacophony of scrums, injuries, and scrums. Early in the second half Hamptonians scored 2 tries taking them into the lead at 14-17 following some good wing play. Squeaky bum time perhaps for the boys? Were they going to get bested 2 times by the future house of lords members? The injuries carried on in the same fashion as the first half with Rich Peregrine going off with a nasty blood injury. Likewise, Dave ‘Fingers’ Tonks, dislocated his left ring finger living up to his name sake. Depletion to the back row resulted in backs playing there whom had no prior experience, but a stella job was done. The backs getting involved with dirty work was a refreshing change today. Birthday Boy Shewee also claimed 5 turnovers at the ruck, for which became his main personality trait for the rest of the day. With a Barnett like that, its no wonder he was wiling to stick his head where no other man would.

As a wise man once said ‘timing is everything’, and the old adage rang true today. With always punctual Vinnie making an appearance and scoring the try of the match following some excellent hands from the backs, keeping his appearance to try ratio at 1. Strets were in the lead 19-17. Events get unclear from this point on, author knows he got a shoulder to the head from a player who seemingly become a double arm amputee in the tackling department. Author also knows he buried said player when he decided to run straight into his strong shoulder, to take a trip to Gloucester and back. Ben Cowell also nearly sealed the game, following some missed kicks from the oppo, only to get caught after his 70m break away.

The whistle blew and there was a strong post match celebration late into the PM, with the OHRFC boys being a good craic to talk to in the clubhouse after. The season finale, the cup final will be played in Esher against Merton RFC on Monday 2nd May.