Battersea Ironsides vs Streatham-Croydon Scorpians

written by Mo

The Build Up
With the Scorpions being the only team last year to come home with silverware. The first League cup match couldn’t be more important, could we win the coveted chairman’s tumbler for two successive years on the trot....or could it even potentially be the Chairman’s ashtray or plate this year? All the players knew was a win was necessary to give us a chance of being remembered like the teams of old.

Game Day
With the captain doing his best to avoid taking the warm up by sending himself and half the team to the wrong pitches, the warm-up was limited to a short 25 minutes. I felt it only right to take Dick of the Day for taking the boys on a hopeless trek, whilst guiding all supporters to the correct location.
With a match squad of over 20, something which I had not seen, strength and numbers were looking good. Last week sloppy offloading led to the first half demise, this week it was made clear sloppy off-loads had no place in the game, go to ground and believe in the support.
The match saw the unlikely pairing of former prop Charlie Pattihis and hooker Rolstone in the centres with a combined weight over two hundy kegs. Strong early running from the forwards set up a good platform for the backs and gave the newly formed half back pairing of snakey Tarrant and Angus good chances to work their magic. A mixture of disorganisation and lone running led to some consecutive penalties which pushed us back into our 22. With the defence holding strong a turnover was won by Abdul, embodying the spirit and energy of the team as a whole. With Toby now on at inside centre and with the pace of Tom Rainey and Jake on the wings. The ball was sent side to side working our way into their half. A succession of penalties at the breakdown once again lead to us being pushed back. However in true Streatham fashion we overcame and won a penalty in front of the sticks. The call was to go for the corner, points were to be taken under no circumstances, for we wanted a memorable win. The slick hands brought the ball into the centre and then reversed it swinging it out wide releasing Jake to score in the corner on his debut. The beginning of a kicking masterclass from Alex Tarrant had begun dissecting the uprights with pin point precision 7-0 to Streatham.
With more penalties given at the breakdown and a period of several minutes vehemently defending our lines , eventually Ironsides scored and levelled out the score. 7-7. The ball was being lost over and over at the breakdown, so ice and powerful hits on the first runner would be how we would win back ball.
With Ironsides pushing strong from the restart and with a man out wide Alex went for an intercept, only much to the shock of all be shown to the sin bin for what the ref viewed as a deliberate knock on. With Tyler injured, Rolstone back on in the forwards at hook. The Ironsides 15 attempted a quick tap penalty only to somehow knock on, much to the delight of the boys. The Streatham attack pushed on and came close to scoring on a few occasions, the half ended a draw.
With fresh legs ready to go the second half saw a whole new back row. With Jason, Dr Mark and Mohassin off and Steve Tillin, Keegan and Bear on. In the second row Jack Holborn on for Heath and Tom Rainey replaced by Gareth on the wing.
The second half began with Streatham coming right out of the blocks and putting pressure on Ironsides from kick-off. Pinning them in their own half eventually winning the ball back and throw a combination of strong running from Centres linking up with full back Ben Cowell and good phase play from the forwards we saw the ball edging closer and closer to the line. After a torrent of attack Jack Holborn secured a try to put Streatham back in front. 14-7. From kick off once again we saw hard running from Charlie popping it up to Toby to step through three players only to drop the ball just short of the line. Some phases later and Alex backed himself for the 3 points in front of the sticks only to slice it wide. With ball back in Streatham possession and Keegan storming towards the opposition, no-one could believe what they saw next..... a chip and chase which he somehow miraculously managed to recover to smash the last defender and then offload to bear coming at pace to score under the sticks. 21-7 to Streatham.
With Streatham on the attack once more Charlie stormed towards the line with only one or two men to beat only to be close-lined and held up. Somehow this infringement was missed by the referee. A few phases later and with the Streatham back line with a 2 man overlap the backs ball was called only for Charlie to give a no look pop inside that the opposition recovered. Jack Hardwick soon after won back possession and made considerable yardage as he’d done throughout the match. This combined with his grunt work throughout made him worthy of Man of the match.
Final score 21-7, the path to silverware could not have started better. Com on Strets!

Man of the match : Jack Hardwick
Dick of the day : Mohassin Shah