Match Report - Longlevens v Old Reigatians (23rd March)

Longlevens 5 - 36 Old Reigatians

It was bright and sunny on Sunday morning, though once again as cold as an Eskimo's tailpipe, but hey, that's Spring for you... We had a match against a touring team - Old Reigatians from, er, Reigate which is somewhere near scenic Gatwick - news to me, as I'd have bet you good money it was on the coast in Kent - hey ho, what's a geography O Level worth these days, eh?? Correct.

The plan was to make sure everyone available got some game time, so there would be plenty of mixing and matching going on - as ever, the crowd couldn't wait for the game to get going....

Once they'd overcome certain, ahem, issues with the lifts in their hotel, and the fire brigade had departed, ORs (as I'll be calling them from now on) got well stuck in, and my notes (yes, I do take some) look a little like this:

11.05 Kick Off

11.06 OR score, good run from fullback 0-5

11.10 OR fullback breaks from own half 0-12

11.12 'Levens starting to play, interception from OR - try on right 0-17

11.15 OR try on right 0-22

'Levens were somewhat blitzed by this start, but did start to roll up their sleeves and work their way back into the match - Mikey Yorke put in a good run on the right, John Phillips was playing well at scrum half and Fergus Walsh showing some good touches, but OR had some good, big, quick lads, so they put in another score with 20 minutes gone - a great offload off the floor, despite a cracking covering tackle from Sam Rees - for 0-29.

Somewhat unfortunately OR also ran back the restart for 0-36, and a couple of minutes later we had the highlight of the first half (for the home team) when Jed Jones, playing at fullback, cleared out a ruck on the far side of the pitch with his now patented Exocet technique....

Changes were made at half time, and 'Levens played a far more physical game (Nico) - just about all of the play was in the OR half, with Messrs Cusworth, Rees, Salkeld and O'Brien putting in a great deal of hard work - lots of pressure, but no points until 10 minutes from the end when Chris Powick crashed over on the left for a final score of 5-36.

As they say, it's a game of 2 halves, and they won one, and we won the other, so we could call it a draw, apart from the fact that we clearly won the mulled Vimto drinking for MOTM as well, so a moral victory, n'est pas?? Seriously, well played to OR - a very good team... They beat Widden on Friday too - so they can't be all bad...

Couple of points - slightly worried by some pitch side goings-on (Grammar schools, eh??) and not too sure about the quality of the belt shown....