2nd XV Match Reports

Sat 9 Sept 06: Sidcup 2s 10 - Old Colfeians 2s 22

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

Just one of those days for the 2nd fifteen, the last pre-season friendly but the first home game of the season.

Starting line-up once again saw some old faces return, on paper one of the strongest 2nd teams for a while up until meet time on the Saturday.

1. Lewis Brown
2. Jon Cosh
3. Spencer Wingnut Bennett
4. James Seabiscuit Hill
5. Chris Smith
6. Matt The Munch Floyd
7. Tom Maz Wicks
8. Mike Elliott

9. Dickie Leamon
10. Mark Watson
11. Jim Budha Moore
12. Paul Siege Gun Edwards
13. Dickie Day
14. Steve Burke
15. Steve Wop Amura

Replacements

16. Eddie Le Roux
17. Tommy Killer Crisp
18. Mark Smith
19. Dave The Samoan Nolan

Game KO at 3.00pm, the sun was shinning it was a great day to be playing at home. Both teams started the game pretty evenly, with Sidcup having weakened front row on the day the cracks started to show. O'Colfs always a very strong well organised unit were beginning to turn the screw in the scrum, whether legal or illegal you'll have to take that up with our front. But full credit to Wingnut Bennett who only contacted me earlier in the week for a run out, i think his words were "if possible in the back row", woops! ! ! sorry spenny I thought you said front row. With the scrum wheeling it was difficult for the 2's to play off the front foot, the return of Dickie Leamon and the on loan back row players Maz and Elliott from the first team enabled us to still create some good chances. But for how much ball O'Colfs were turning over in the scrums and a fair bit at the beak down our line could not be touched with some accurate throwing from Jon Cosh and Seabiscuit changing from a galloping horse one week to a flying salmon the next we evened up the odds a little, I think we must have stole 7 of there line out aswell.

Unfortunately O'Colfs struck first and took a first half lead 0-10. Making some changes at half time brought some fresh legs in to the second half, replacing Bennett for Le Roux at prop another lad thinking he was gonna get a run out in the back row, Mark Smith in to the second row an injury to Matt The Munch brought Killer in to the game and after the man of match performance last week from Samoan Nolan saw Dickie Leamon sidelined.

Sidcup struck first in the 2nd half with a well worked move from the backs saw Amura another on loan player from the first team crashing under the posts from full back, siege gun adding the two having missed a first half penalty. The 2's then had there tails up and were creating holes in the defence, some great lines from Dickie Day and Eddie Le Roux saw us rock up in to the O'Colf's twenty two, but not for long some quick thinking from O'Colf's scrum half created another score for the away side 7-15, with still 15 minutes remaining we were down there again determined to come away with points 2'nd team captain and fly half Mark Watson hit a drop goal, 10-15. All to play for in the last 10 minutes Sidcup tried to break down the defensive wall again to only come unstuck from again some aggressive rucking and power play from the O'Colf's pack, some thumping tackles from fullback Steve Amura and good cover tackling from Steve Burke just couldn't prevent a break down the blindside that saw O'colfs go over again this time converted 10-22.

Summary

A fantastic performance from the Sidcup 2's, really showed some tremendous character and pride. A massive confidence boost going into next week'a first league game of the season at home against O'Dunstonians

Man of the Match: Steve Amura

Big thank you's to Spencer Bennett, Eddie Le Roux

A welcome back to Mark Smith, Dickie Leamon

MW - 11 Sept 06

Sat 2 Sept 06: Tunbridge Wells 2s 10 - Sidcup 2s 12

Saturday the 2nd September 2006 saw the opening 80 minute game of the season for the 2nd Fifiteen. Tunbridge Wells were the host for the day.

Both 1st and 2nd teams aimed to take squads of 22 plus players for this fixture. As you can probably imagine this wasn't to be the case for the 2's, having selected a squad earlier in the week, it wasn't long before work commitments, hair appointments and other reasons were to come to light for players unavailabilty.

So the 2's ended up travelling down to Tunbridge with a total of 18 Players.

THE GAME

The game saw alot of new faces with in the 2's line up as well as the return of some old ones.

The front row was blessed with the strength and character of Rob Farnham Jones just on a break from the 1st team, the return of a fit and very keen Jon Cosh and the return of Lewis Brown "Lewis you know Sidcup is where you should be playing your Rugby".

The second row was very strong with the increasing talents of James Seabiscuit Hill and new signing Simon give me more gold balls Burwood.

The back row consisted of a member of the old guard Martin Welsh who? (Scabby! ! ! ), new signing Chris Smith and the hardest hitting pound for pound back row player in the club Matt The Munch Floyd.

Backs saw new boy Dave Samoan Joe Nolan at scrum half and beleive you me its not his size and hard hitting that you become very familiar with the Pacific Islanders how he has gained this nicknam but for his ridiculous after match attire, at 10 saw new boy Paul Siege Gun Edwards with another new signing hard running inside centre Jim Budha Moore, a back to fitness flying Phil Keates, wingers Manamal the new slim line Steve Burke and Full back Steve Arnie Anker.

Replacements: Skipper Mark Watson, Euan Dillon and David with some unpronouncable surnmame from SA.

Kick Off

Sidcup started poorly, for the first 20 minutes with the wind against us, TW put the fighting 2's under some serious pressure and were rewarded with an earlier 10-0 lead. Good to see TW showing off some of there young U18's at winger and Full back.

It wasn't until Paul Edwards at 10 began to punt the corners against the wind that Sidcup began to fight back. With some accurate lineout throwing from Jon Cosh accompanied by some incredible pack power, some direct route one rugby from Budha and Keates, the 2's were getting closer and closer to the TW line. In the 25th minute one of many surging runs from Sidcup second row James Hill created and opportunity for Matt Floyd to dive head first into the corner, Conversion from Paul Edwards just dropping short 10-5. Soon after that saw another surperb forward thrust, another surperb linout saw the Sidcup pack role over the TW line for second time this time the scorer would you believe it was Scabby (thats his lot for the year) conversion crashed over by Paul Edwards saw Sidcup go in to the second half 10-12 up.

The second half was full of incident, changes made at 10 Paul Edwards making way for Mark Watson and Manamal making way for Euan Dillon. The game began to get a little messy, little scraps here and there spoiled the flow of the game and with the wind behind us we really should have put TW away. Phil Keates then decided to smash TW U18 full back to pieces but actually knocked himself out brought Paul Edwards back on the field. With some good play in the backs the ball never seemed to go to hand and chances went missing. Game finished 10-12 to Sidcup.

Highlights of the game Euan joining the field and making himself a magnet for swinging arms, RFJ responding to the scraps whilst dragging skipper Mark Watson on his arse from the 22 to the try line.

Summary

All in all a really positive start for the 2'nd team, may it continue throughout the season.

A really big thank you from Skipper Mark Watson for the efforts.

Hard lines to the first team, it llooked to be quite a close encounter.

Apologises for any spelling mistakes, not one of my strong points, and this is the first and final draft.

Cheers

Skipper Mark Watson

Bring on O'Colfs.................