1st XV
Matches
Sat 12 Oct 2019
Beccehamian
20
7
Crowborough RFC
1st XV
Beccs come out on top

Beccs come out on top

Ian GEERING13 Oct 2019 - 08:26
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A week later, this time in the RFU's Intermediate Cup .

Match Report by Rick Howe.

A lot can happen in seven days. Last week ‘Boro completely outplayed Beccahamians in their league encounter, but yesterday in a dank, wet and miserable corner of South London, the RFU’s algorithms pitched these two sides together again, and the result could not have been more different.
The debate about the relevance of Cup competitions, in these days of bruising league competitions combined with ever thinner squad sizes, will continue to rage. Yesterday 18 sides were due to take part in this first round, but of the nine scheduled games three were given home or away walkovers. Within half an hour of the opening whistle in this contest, three of Crowborough’s four replacements were off the bench as injuries to Ollie Clinch, Ollie Jude-Trailor and Andy Orchard, added to this debate.
Having improved week on week with a fairly settled side, Crowborough started this game with several positional and personnel changes to the previous weeks’ line up, and the early injuries were to make this disruption doubly difficult. Beccahamians who spectacularly failed to turn up last week, brought their “A” game yesterday, with their large front five operating in concert, steam-rollering through the centre, which forced the ‘Boro eight to stick tight and hustle for scraps of possession, whilst the Becs back row were able to detach and support their rejuvenated back division, led by their mercurial #9.
Constantly on the back foot, the ‘Boro defence generally stood firm and prevented several potential Bec’s scoring opportunities. Disappointingly the Boro back division, that spectacularly demolished Becs the previous week, were indecisive, lacked positional discipline, and were slow to react to what was in front of them.
With Gus Weir spending ten minutes in the bin, Becs took the opportunity to exploit the inevitable gap in defence to score out wide, for a well converted try 7-0. This was quickly followed by a penalty and with the injury readjustments it looked ominously as though the gates were about to open.
However with the clock running down and Becs on the attack, a fumble in the centre saw young Luca Tonelli, making his first start, scoop up the loose ball and as he made to send out a long pass to the left, he spotted a miniscule gap, and wrong footing the defence, sprinted thirty metres to put the ball down between the posts for the converted try, bringing the half time score to 10-7, with the visitors remarkably still in the game.
With the amount of ball that Becs were getting they really should have been out of site, but Crowborough’s pack doggedly hung in there, making clean quick possession somewhat of a lottery, however Becs did cross the line courtesy of a mishandled juggle, that confused the defence for the touch down between the sticks. 17-7.
A final penalty brought this unsatisfactory contest to an end at 20-7,which leaves Crowborough to concentrate once more on the League without further distractions, starting next week with their visit to a fast improving Hove RFC , KO 3:00pm.

Match details

Match date

Sat 12 Oct 2019

Kickoff

14:30

Meet time

12:00

Instructions

Please meet at the Club House for 12.00pm - we will need to leave soon after, If you plan on going direct please can you inform Dan or Ian before 11.00am Saturday.
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