Another storming away day from the SCRFC faithful; with those who couldn’t make it down, it was the game of the season by far and enjoyed on the sidelines by some of the fans and Bambi’s extended family.

From arrival at Hampton Wick train station, made famous by Jamie T, there was excitement in the air as the boys couldn’t wait to get into it. Heads were firmly screwed on for KO as we had a point to prove and a tattoo to secure.

The game started furiously, with Quins Amateurs piling on the pressure but Strets providing a brick wall for them to play against. After about 5-10 minutes of rugby pinned in Strets half, the HARFC 8 received a sin bin which relieved the pressure slightly. However the momentum of the game still swayed slightly to HA’s as they used their pitch’s geography and the blustery weather to their advantage with some very long kicks, keeping the back three busy. The first points of the game went their way, after a poor kick chase that saw their winger gas round the edge of one of ours, can’t recall who it was sadly.

Strets luck continued to falter as well, with fullback Ben Cawl getting a yellow for a professional foul on a quick tap. However, momentum swung back to SCRFC and the big red/maroon/purple machine came very much to life, dominating the remaining 10 mins of the half. As we marched up the field, controlling the game perfectly, the opposition were constantly scrambling to keep up. And finally, after some sustained pressure and our pack dominating at scrum time, flyhalf Adam Schneebly darted through to secure our opening score. Schneebly converted his own try. To cap off the first half, HA’s choose to kick points, taking us in at the break 8-7 down.

The control Strets ended the half with came back tenfold in the opening minutes of the second half. A string of solid carries and kicks saw us pounding on their line, before human wrecking ball Lamont Brian carried the ball and 4 defenders over the line for another 5 points for the team, Schneebly converting. As the saying goes, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ and straight from the restart, Strets embraced that with another domination down the field with Lamont bursting over in a very familiar fashion for his second of the day.

Strets continued to control the game, playing some great phases and using the wind to their advantage to pin HA’s back, however the dynamic of the game altered a little at around 65mins when Ben Cawl lent into the Halloween theme and cut someone in half like something from SAW. And we all know what comes next, yellow + yellow = red; that was DOTD sorted then.

At this point, HA’s smelt some blood but the boys were having none of it, upping the anti and dominating the game physically with the likes of flanker Barney Brans and prop Charlie Patihisopolous clattering people for good measure. SCRFC were unlucky not to score another after 9, Jack Evertoon’s grubber bounced out the dead ball area before he could dot it down.

Yet another domination by the Front Road faithful. Are you not entertained?