Beckenham v Sidcup RFC.

Thank god it’s stopped raining! We awake after a drowned out Saturday and even worse Saturday evening to the sun breaking through for the first time in 3 days, yes the game looks to be on with near perfect conditions to play apart from the gale force wind!. Lets hope the pitch at Beckenham stands up to the last few days rain.
All looks to be good as we arrive at the grounds but is the pitch playable, after a brief survey I find the game is on and the changing room awaits, I do show some concerns as I only see around 8 sidcup players but carry on to find our changing room to already be full of the sidcup under 13s squad readying themselves for training.
We had already marked the game down for a change in the starting squad after the heavy work load undertaken the week before by some of our squad, the players change and start their warm up leaving the coaches to talk about the selection for the first half, I had already made my choice of the starting line up which after a brief chat was agreed by all.
First starts of the season go to Levi, George, Oein, Dan, Gus after his return to the club, welcome back.
Ethan, Levi, James drop into the back line (lead by josh Fenn this week) and quick briefing off we go, Beckenham look to have a large pack so this could be a work out for the boys or so we thought, a few skirmishes and the first scrum comes, we get pushed off our own ball! Is this what the afternoon will bring? The pack then wakes up and with a good ball won in open play the ball comes to Sam who puts away josh and through the line to see Levi have his first run in sidcup colours, the tackling is good and Levi is grounded 25 short.
Beckenham then have their best spell of the game and the forwards try hard to break the sidcup defence but to no avail. Sam then clutches a long ball from Ethan and has a run through the hands ending with lee coming into the line, Christian and Levi winning the second phase and josh breaks through and scores our first try, with lee missing the conversion, Beckenham start again, the game is now having a familiar pattern of the big Beckenham pack trundling up the park and sidcup soaking up the pressure , the beck’s pack are winning the line out balls so this calls for a change of tactics.
I think the sidcup pack deals with the larger opposition very well and the first half comes to a close with further tries from josh, Sol and H closing the half out, no real changes for the second apart from the ref! Well I must now have my first run out of the year with the whistle, this should be good …...
Second half start with Beckenham forwards showing some renewed vigour after their chat with the coach, a very strong run sees three sidcup forwards brushed aside but finally we bring his run to a halt. Then a sidcup counter sees them in the corner with a strong run from josh, 10 mins in and a complete change of 7 players in the back line and 4 in the pack would this affect the game ! No, normal duties resume and a further 4 tries from Sol, Zak, Dan, Luke.
A good run out for the sidcup squad, with a few errors but overall we can be pleased with our progress this season.
Finally I have to say the new guys in the starting line up, Levi, James, Gus, Langa, Dan Buckley, Oein and George all played well.
And the to the usual suspects, RESPECT. !

Porky..