Sidcup maitain second place in London 1 north

Sidcup recovered from a dire first half performance to achieve a convincing victory over Woodford at Crescent Farm on Saturday by 6 goals and a try to nil.

Woodford are one of Sidcup’s traditional opponents from pre-league days and the connections between the clubs also include personnel. Member of the current Sidcup coaching team, Barry Pinder is a former captain of Woodford and Ian Palmer, a former Wasps coach and current Woodford member was an outstanding Sidcup coach in the 1970s before he gave up the unequal struggle to turn your Correspondent into an adequate scrum-half and decided coaching first class rugby presented less of a challenge.

It was clear that a lot of work had been done on the pitch since the previous Saturday and it was in excellent condition. Early exchanges consisted of rugby ping-pong before, on ten minutes Jon West drove through to the Woodford line and, although the ball broke loose from the ruck, it was picked up by Jon Cosh who drove over under the posts leaving Jim Hardy with an easy conversion.

For the next twenty five minutes, Sidcup played as poorly as they have done all season. Wrong options were taken, handling mistakes were made and penalties were conceded at an alarming rate. Whenever they had an opportunity to put some pressure on Woodford a mistake was made or a penalty allowed Woodford relief. It was not until injury time that the lead was increased. Penetrating runs by West and Jack Berry took play deep into Woodford territory and the visitors conceded a penalty. From the line-out, the driving maul went over and Cosh emerged with the ball to the delight of all home supporters with the exception of replacement Iain Wilson who seems to regard driving maul tries as opportunities to be shared between himself and Danny Mizen. There was just enough time left in the half for Callum Thomson to be binned by Mr Pace for a high tackle. Although the decision looked a little harsh, the number of penalties given away by Sidcup probably encouraged the referee to reach for his card.

Although Sidcup may well have begun the match confident of victory and a try bonus point, at this stage in the game neither looked by any means certain. However whatever Messers Martin, Ubee and Pinder said at half-time clearly had an effect as the second half showed an entirely different Sidcup team. Within two minutes of the restart, Matt Ody collected a kick near halfway, linked with West who passed to Sam Carmen. Carmen stormed to the line and, when tackled found Ody in support. Hardy converted.

It took another ten minutes for the try bonus to be achieved. From a line-out on the Woodford twenty two the driving maul almost ran towards the line and Cosh completed his hat-trick leaving Wilson looking even more crestfallen. Sidcup rang the changes. Richard Clarke replaced Ody who had grown into the game and impressed with a slick service, Mike Elliott replaced Colin Cooper and, lest Cosh score any more tries, Wilson took his place in the front row.

The next try was the best of the day as, following a Mizen drive, Jamie Cutler appeared off his wing, went through a gap in the centre and gave the ball to Richard Roddis who scored. Ten minutes later Roddis and Cutler combined again as, following a run by Clarke, Roddis looked as though he could score himself but found Cutler in support and returned the favour. Hardy converted both tries. With ten minutes remaining, Sidcup completed their scoring. Michael Ubee nearly touched down in the left corner but was tackled just short. A couple of rucks later Wilson, acting as a very convincing scrum-half, fed Ubee who put in a pin-point cross field kick which Hardy grounded and kicked the conversion.

In the last ten minutes Woodford showed why they had defeated Chingford the previous week and put the home line under pressure, moving the ball well. However the home defence was up to the task and the visitors were unable to get on the board.

Ian Martin’s view was “ Poor first half with too many penalties: second half, what a difference”. Wingers Jamie Cutler and Richard Roddis enjoyed the dryer ground and both played very well. Centres Callum Thomson and Jack Berry were prominent in attack and defence. The forwards were dominant throughout, especially in the scrum and Sam Carmen and Jon West carried the ball well as did the rest of the back row of Peter Grayson, Mike Elliott and Steven Evans. Next Saturday, Sidcup travel to Chingford who will be anxious to avenge a defeat earlier in the season and keep their play-off hopes alive.