Saturday 14^th January 2012

Canterbury Shield Division 3

Hammers 37 Dorking II 33

It was a thriller, a game befitting the top of the table clash. 1st vs 2nd, Hammersmith and Fulham vs Dorking, both teams driven by the knowledge that the result of this game could crown a king, or reaffirm the status quo. Everything to play for, everything to lose. – both sides knew their season could turn on this very game. And in the end, there could only be one winner. Unless it was a draw.

80 minutes later, an exhausted Hammersmith & Fulham 2nd XV walked off the field. Victorious.

Dorking drew first blood. The opening 5 minutes saw Dorking’s talented backs spread the ball wide and blow holes in the Hammers defence. The pace was quick and their running sharp, but the Hammers poor tackling was just as much to blame for these opening Dorking meters. Sniping through holes and making ground, the Dorking 10 spread the ball wide to his 13 only 10 meters out from the Hammers line. He strolled over to open the score, 0-7 Dorking.

Annoyed at the soft try and the weak start, the boys came back strong. Attacking hard, the Hammers forced a scrum on the Dorking 22. A set of phases rumbled up the paddock before Neil Richardson (10) slotted an unexpected-but-handy field goal from right in front: 3-7. Taking the restart wide, the eventually ball found CCS (13), who parted the Dorking line to make good meters. Supported ably by Bourne (12) and the outside men of Leon (11) and North (14), Richardson began to string the talented hammers backs together into solid phases. Side-to-side the boys went before Sergeant crossed the chalk and took the scores out to 8-7, the Hammers taking the lead for the first time. A well deserved try.

Dorking responded. Fractured play and poor tackling yet again allowed holes to be exploited by the Dorking backs, well supported by a determined and linking back-row. Punching it up the middle, the Dorking 12 shook the tackles and ran 30 meters to cross near the posts, reclaiming the lead but shanking the conversion. 8-13 Dorking.

Enraged by yet another soft try - the second in 15 minutes - the Hammers woke up. Coming to grips with their opposing front row, Gabbo (1), McEachern (30 and Rees – fresh from his 21st birthday celebrations – began to really pressure the Dorking scrum, no tall order given their talented tight-head. Pick-and-go’s from the base by Pettitt – barely 20 minutes off the plane after the boy-band’s latest tour of the midlands – gave Tom Winter (8) an abundance of quick ball. A lazy Dorking penalty allowed Jack Sargent to slot a penalty, before he added to his tally by scoring and converting again. Hammers 18-13 going into the half time break.

With their defence stiffened by a firm Super Coach Kiwi-talking-to, the Hammers came out with all guns blazing, aided by the cracking ruck work of Hayman (4) who was everywhere, spoiling ball and making tackles. It all came to ahead via a brilliant blind-side attack that featured McEachern Gabbo, Winter, and whoever, - all making serious metres - before a heartbreaking knock-on at the Dorking 5 meter line stopped another certain Hammers try.

The game turned on the next scrum. Hunkering down and driving as one, the Hammers turned the Dorking scrum over and won against the feed. Winter fired the ball out to Neil, who passed to Bourne, who passed to CCS, …. Try! It almost seemed easy.

It started a flood. For the next 15 minutes the Hammers crossed no less than twice more. First Richardson used his step to shake some defenders and score by the posts before Leon demonstrated the value of always chasing a side-line penalty kick, reclaiming the ball and scoring after an ill-advised attempt by the Dorking winger to keep the ball alive. Elated, the boys began to relax….

…big mistake. For the remaining 15 minutes Dorking threw themselves at the Hammers defence like a banzai charge. Tough scrum after tough scrum tested the boys, tackle after tackle….Dorking crossed once, shrinking the margin down to 11

….scrum…scrum….penalty…phase….5 minutes to go…..scrum again, with Anscombe doing over his opposite man….tackle….Gabbo penalised….scrum again….tackle…ruck….

Dorking try.

It was not enough though, and with only 45 seconds to go, the Hammers held out. And while there was much to improve on, and a lot of Rugby left, there was much to celebrate as well – top of the table, undefeated, victorious.