Saturday 10^th December 2011

London 1 North (Level 6)

Chingford 22 Hammers 19

On the first cold day of winter, the Hammers 1st XV travelled to East London with several changes to the side in the backs from last game, to play a Chingford side that were just one place above them in the league.

The Hammers started the match very positively with the forwards controlling the ball up front providing lots of clean possession for their backs, so keeping Chingford in their own half for the opening 15 minutes. But no points were put on the scoreboard for all this hard work and pressure, as several passes didn’t find the Hammers players intended or the ball was lost in contact. Also three kickable penalties were missed that meant that Chingford were able re-group and force their way out of their half for the first time in the game, after twenty minutes. The Hammers forwards had to be re-organised during this time as both Steve Harrington and Hugh Campbell had to leave the field due to injuries and were replaced by debutant Shane Dewar and Chris Gabbert. From a lineout inside the Hammers twenty two, Chingford won the ball and moved it to their outside centre, who ran a good line of attack to score a well taken try under the posts, which was not converted so making the score 5-0. Soon after this, from a poor Chingford kick out of defence, full back Jack Sergant ran the ball into the heart of their defence were he linked up with James Boysons who made the scoring pass to James Buckley. Jack Sargent added the extra points from the conversion to make the score 5-7 to the Hammers. Straight from the kick off Chingford won the ball and moved it swiftly to their right wing who beat the cover defence and scored an unconverted try in the last moments of the first half, to make the score 10-7 to Chingford.

In the opening minutes of the second half the Hammers could not turn the pressure they put on Chingford into points. This proved costly, as Chingford against the run of play to put points on the board when a miss tackle by the Hammers centres closed to the try line, allowed them to score a converted try under the posts to increase their lead to 17-7. Finally the Hammers pressure in the forwards began to tell on the Chingford pack and from the base of a scrum, number eight Nick Ball picked up at the twenty metre line and race towards the try line only to be drag down just short, but James Boysons was on hand in support to cross the line. The conversion was successful so making the score 17-14. But once again the Hammers committed a cardinal sin of giving away a soft try to the opposition, when a relieving speculative kick from the Chingford scrum half from half way found its way into the Hammers in goal area were it caused confusion for the covering Hammers winger Darryl Turner, who miss judged the bouncing ball to allow the chasing Chingford winger to score an unexpected try, making the score 22-14 to the home side. The Hammers made their last changed to the team bringing on Hennie De Jager for a welcome return to the 1st XV after being out for nearly a year with a serious leg injury and looked to regain control of the match. From the re-start the Hammers retained the ball straight from the kick off and fashioned a good try for another debutant, Will North on the right wing that was not converted, making the score 22-19. The Hammers put the Chingford team under great deal of pressure in the remaining minutes and had a great opportunity to take the lead near the end of the match, when Richard Braithwaite kicked through a drop pass from Chingford over their try line only to not get control of the ball to score a try. Even after this and going down to fourteen players for the last few minutes due to an injury to Shane Dewar and running out of substitutes, didn’t stop the Hammers attempting to win the game outright, but this was not forth coming as Chingford held on for victory, with the final score being 22-19.

This was a game that the Hammers 1st XV should have won and may come regret at the end of the season, for not securing the extra points on offer, which should have been taken by the team.