Dubs 13 - Pelhamians 38 (05/11/07)
This league fixture promised much but went wrong pretty much from our arrival to find the ref had cried off. With the decision made to play it as a friendly, preparation on both sides was half-hearted to say the least. A ref was then nicked from an adjoining friendly fixture at the last minute and the game was suddenly back on again.
The early exchanges were laboured with both teams struggling to raise the intensity level. We had the upper hand early on in the set piece but were guilty of turning over ball too easily, Pelhamians pouncing to go through the midfield and score twice - an area where they looked strong all game. Their number 10 had a very solid kicking game throughout and taught us a lesson in the value of playing the game in your opponents half, kicking good distances on a very narrow pitch. First up tackles were poor and we were turned far too easily in the first half.
A couple of soft penalties as we tried to win 50/50 ball extended the Pelhamians lead and they were soon 18-6 up, a couple of good penalties through John (newly promoted to the kicking role) our only points. John should get special mention for the try-that-never-was, calling a grubber kick through which Ben duly provided and chasing through into the tiny dead-ball area to touch down inches before the line. The ref disallowed the try and called play back for an earlier infringement, awarding us a penalty instead - surely an advantage situation! At a crucial stage in the game, would this have turned it in our favour?
Late in the second half, we finally rallied after Rob gathered yet another kick at fullback and ran it back at pace. The winger offered him the outside and got skinned for his troubles as Rob finished off a great solo effort. John converted to close off the half at 18-13 with us still in touch.
The second half saw us turn over two early scrums in succession, allowing their forwards an easy advantage in an area we had dominated until that point.
The superior kicking game of Pelhamians saw us pinned back in our own half for long periods, and although our backs produced some good moves and made ground we were starting from far too deep in our own half on most occasions. Pelhamians then ran in some well created tries through their midfield to secure their advantage. As we increasingly had to force the game, against a rush defense handling mistakes were inevitable and Pelhamians took advantage to snatch some easy points and close out the game.
Whilst the scoreline may have flattered slightly, the team effort was simply not good enough on the day and a shadow of recent games. We need to put this behind us and move on to our next game against Haslemere, a game we cannot go into as unprepared. (There are no photos of this game, apologies from Tanya.)
RFU.com 
Club Search
