1s secure bonus point proving they are heading in the right direction

An unusually hot November day greeted the league leaders Jersey upon arrival at Fortress Hurlingham. Well, it is more of a fort made of couch cushions these last few weeks, but it’s home…

Spirits were high in the 1’s camp after seeing off Camberley in our previous match and watching Nugget’s 2’s dust up Jersey in the sun. 80 mins stood before us and glory.

Jersey kicked off toward our elite training pitches and the king of the north, Dan, leapt high even though he knows nothing. A clean take, a nice jack left, lovely bogey up the touchline by Gregor and we exited well. What was going on?

Their 9, on debut, absolutely fluffed the lineout, a theme that would continue throughout the afternoon for him. It was an honour and a privilege to play in his first and last game at this level. The result gave the Hammers their first chance to attack. A lovely scrum move and silky hands from Geoff and Joe put Max into space. Early signs the boys were on. Gregor and Geoff managed the boys around the park well, making sure we were getting into the right areas with some useful kicking.

Some massive shots by tiny Josh, Whits and Ian let the Jersey boys know it was not going to be a stroll in the park. Jersey then somewhat against the run of play, opened the scoring with a nice lineout move that put their winger through 1 on 1 with Maxy. RIP Max’s ankles, 1998 to 2025.

Hammers earlier in the season would have folded, but with new attitudes this group got back to the job at hand and it paid dividends. Off a lovely lineout maul from a Dan dart, little Josh ran through the legs of 3 Jersey defenders, and they could not bend down to catch him. 7-5 Hammers.

5 minutes later the Hammers were in again after Joey plucked a Jersey pass out of the air. He ran 40m before wisely choosing to pass to Timmy in support, just before the quicksand swallowed him up. 14-7 Hammers.

The Hammers scored again after some in your face defence by Proctor and the Dan’s led to a loose ball that Timmy Russ pounced on with some nice touches that would make Messi proud and ran most of the field to dot down. 19-7 Hammers and the tails were up.

With the first half winding down, Jersey showed their class with some nice shape and strong carries, creating space in the wide channel for their 12 to run through and get one back. With the last play of the half, Jersey won a penalty and kicked to the corner. A strong maul had them in again and levelled things up at 19-19. A strong first half from the Hammers. Stay tuned to see if they could keep it up.

They could not keep it up.

Off the kick-off, the wave of red shirts parted for the Jersey second row to stroll through untouched, Moses would be proud.

Jersey ran in a flurry of tries against a now tiring Hammers defence. With the win out of reach, attention turned to obtaining a BP. Not many achieve that against this Jersey side. Some raids into the Jersey 22 frustratingly didn’t amount to any tries and with the clock winding down the Hammers were getting desperate. Max was sent to the naughty chair for being offside. I personally think the ref felt threatened for the worst on field mullet.

In an eerily frightening piece of foreshadowing (if you are Scottish), it was a blonde, handsome Kiwi 15, that helped rescue the situation. A quick tap from halfway caught Jersey off guard and the old hamstrings started pumping. A fend on their winger which surely has to be a low point in that guy’s career, had the tryline in sight. The cover tacklers dragged him down within a bee’s dick from the line. As usual, the seagull Joe was on hand and flopped over the line to take the credit. Bonus point secured, 3 games in a row now with points for the Hammers!

Congrats to Charlie and Yarwood on debut. Tough game to come into but neither took a backward step. Another shoutout to Poults and Rogan for a heroic effort to go 80 even though injured. The scrum was solid all day given the opposition and Rogan’s 4th and 5th vertebrae being held together by a Rob McKeon hair follicle. Ed and Ben added a nice impact off the bench with both putting in great hits and lifting the energy.

Man of the Match was the king of the north and well deserved. On to Wimbledon next where we will look to serve up a few aces.