U16 IPSWICH 15 - 15 LOWESTOFT & YARMOUTH Sunday 5th October 2008

Try Scorers for Ipswich- Tom O'Reilly (2) and James Milbourne

Match report by Dave Solomon

Dare I say, "it never rains but it pours"?

Having bemoaned our luck on the injured players front, surely things could only get better today, with a potentially easily winnable match against our friendly visitors from Lowestoft & Yarmouth.

Firstly, thanks to all for a prompt meet at the new time of 9.30. Two (three) very noticeable exceptions to those on time were a certain winger who is quite renowned for sporadic time-keeping - not helped by a particularly hard paper round, and the other player who lives out of town and whose father (remaining anonymous this week) phoned me at 9.23 to check what time we were meeting!

Anyway, the assembled players turned out onto the pitch to number a worryingly few, sixteen. During the warm up they started to drop by the wayside as Meggsy who had been advised by the physio last week to rest for ten days failed to get through the fitness test and withdrew from the match before even kicking off. The remaining players were all to have a full match then. A challenging prospect given that four were making their debuts in fifteen aside rugby for the club and in the case of three lads whose school team rugby is confined to minimal competitive action, a real baptism of fire was experienced by playing the full game.

Atrocious playing conditions were the order of the day, as torrential rain and high wind set out to spoil any ambitions for pretty rugby that either team might hold. However, I think it fair to say that handling errors were not as manifold as could have been expected (from either side). The Ipswich forwards were dominant in the loose play and created good attacking platforms and multi phase play throughout the game. All scrums were uncontested though as we had a front row of an extremely novice nature. Line outs were a bit of a lottery due to the conditions and with a stand-in hooker never having thrown in before to a line consisting of several players not aware of the calls and intricate work which has been developed in this regard, little more could have been expected.

The back line also had a new look to it, but perhaps the greater portion of quality. With George S absent in France ( WW1 trenches, ironically enough given the conditions and attrition rate at HDL today) captain Ben G and debutant Harry T shared the fly-half duties. In the case of Harry, his work load was incresed with kicking duties. Difficult in the extreme due to the wind. He certainly caught the eye with his powerful running today.

Soon after kick off, two players, almost simultaneously, were off the field having injuries treated. A sprained wrist was to see Sam PJ take no further part in the match and for a period of several minutes, Alexander HS had a bleeding nose awaiting clotting on the touchline. This thirteen against fifteen bias was an early practice for the state of the match from eighteen minutes in. Several players had lost their footings in the wet conditions, but none, as drastically as the unfortunate Tom R. Playing in his customary fullback berth. As he gathered a loose ball in his own half and set out to run back at L&Y, his foot slipped and a most ungainly looking fall was taken with Tom in immediate and very obvious pain. Three paramedics and lots of gas & air later he was swifted away to A&E with a suspected groin strain.

My score keeping records were under pressure from the elements and the hectic action on the injury front, but the visitors were the first to score. Ipswich levelled though with a tremendous try out wide by Tom O who was playing number eight today, and before half time further points had been added by James M. James, one of our debut makers has already caught the eye in early season tournaments and training and had a very busy time of it today given that he played most of the game as our sole winger prior to going to fullback for the second half. He has great pace and put this to good effect with the try.

At the turn-round, it was ten five in favour of the home side, but the visitors hadn't finished and with the aid of the wind and their greater numbers on the pitch, scored two tries in quick succession. Prospects for Ipswich looked as bleak as the weather for a while, but the fighting spirit and resolve against the odds got us through in the end. The match was levelled with another unconverted try as Tom O galloped clear to register his place at the top of the points, and try scoring tables. There was the odd question as to why Lowestoft continued to play fifteen and not drop off a player or two. An alternative could have been to lend us one or two spares that they had. It may have been memories of their only previous visit when we racked up getting on for three figures against them, so who could blame them today for holding onto their best prospect of a victory?

So, a draw to open the fifteen a side campaign. Surely a moral victory, given the nature of the performance and odds stacked against us.

Special mention must go to the two new boys from Northgate. Ben R played as stand in hooker and will have learned greatly from this opportunity. Sandeep who was destined for only a taster of competitive action in the pack today, played the whole game as prop (you can now see perhaps why we needed to play uncontested scrums) and despite being quoted as claiming he didn't know what he was doing, on more than one occasion, acquitted himself very well indeed.

We have come a long way in a year, when you consider that we were welcoming rookies such as Tom O and Alex H into the fold. As mentioned above, Tom O was in fine form today, scoring two thirds of the points and Alex had a Johnsonesque performance from the boiler house of the second row. During this year, Tom C wandered off to other pastures but is now back to our green grass. He was back to somewhere near his inspirational best today and is a very welcome returnee.

We now look forward to next Sunday and Cambridge at home. A far tougher opponent awaits us then and one can only hope the gods of injury take no more of our number as well as throwing us a few back.