The Hammers Are Back!

Hammers are back baby! After a long and lonely summer, with only bright sunshine, bbq and beers, and pain-free Sunday mornings to get us through these dark and dreary months your favourite South West London amateur sports club is once again competing in Region 1 South Central and kicking off the season against newly promoted Farnham. With some new faces dotted throughout a largely familiar 1st XV, our new Director of Rugby Ryan Gregory looked to blend fresh vigour with experienced heads.

Hammers were playing into the wind and kicking off to start the match, flyhalf Ollie Weaver steps up confidently, has a few practice bounces for good measure, smoothly pulls back the right peg as he drops the ball and then… completely misses the ball. Slightly rosy cheeked, the Hammers flyhalf does his best Oliver Twist impression when he turns pleadingly to the ref to ask for just one more attempt please sir. The ref regretfully denies Mr Weaver his breakfast ball and awards a scrum to Farnham on the halfway line. Slightly bemused, the Farnham pack approaches wondering if the new Hammers head coach has come from the Rassie Erasmus school of out of the box coaching methods, and whether they are about to get a rogering at the forthcoming set piece. 2 minutes later the ball was away from the scrum cleanly, Farnhams newly promoted minds at ease that Andrew Rogan was not Thomas du Toit’s older brother and they can live with the levels of scrummaging in Regional 1 rugby.

Hammers proceeded to spend the first fifteen minutes of the game exploring every possible avenue to put themselves under pressure. We had; penalties, 50/22s, loose offloads, kicking straight to touch, missing touch from penalties, knock ons, and more. The get out of jail free card for this period was the excellence of the pack at defensive line outs. Last years barnstorming second row partnership, Seb Rivett and skipper Tom Proctor have been promoted to play 7 and 8 respectively, making way for Alex Spicer, newly returned from the antipodes where he was sent by the home office to undergo a thorough in-person inspection of the Australian unemployment line. Lining up alongside him in the engine room and providing some welcome heft at set piece is a new Hammer this year, Luke Wilson. These four proceeded to make life hell for the Farnham hooker, pinching his first three throws and forcing his next two to end up too long.

After weathering this early and self-inflicted storm, Hammers started to play some more fluent rugby. New centre partnership Sandy Duncan and Charlie Scott both carried strongly and linked together well before a contestable box kick was hoisted high by scrumhalf and eventual man-of-the-match Ben Dugdale. Several hammers pressured the Farnham fullback but Tim ‘Le Snack’ Russell rose highest to claim the ball, and then offloaded nicely out of contact to his fellow winger ‘1.6kms O’Connor’ who raced away to bag the first score of the match. Upon the resumption of play Hammers smoothly exited the restart, with another excellent chase winning a penalty in midfield which gave an attacking lineout on the Farnham 22. Hammers worked through the phases from this set piece nicely before coming back to the short side to release fullback Marshall MacLeod on the break who had Tim Russell on his shoulder to give a 2 on 1 with the fullback and Timmy strolled over to give Hammers a 12-0 lead.

After the restart and Hammers exit another Farnham overthrow at lineout time gave debutant Gus Wilbourn room to stretch his legs and he made a fine break deep into Farnham’s half, with the move only breaking down due to some illegal defence from the Farnham winger and a penalty awarded to hammers. Alas, touch was missed and Farnham worked the ball wide to break down the opposite wing. The next ten minutes were spent in the Hammers half, with both teams playing back and forth before a series of mistakes and penalties gave Farnham extended time on the Hammers line, eventually scoring out wide. It was a well-earned return from a period of extended pressure.

The next two Farnham scores were less well-earned and more gifted it has to be said. The Hammers restart went straight to touch, and from the scrum Farnham broke through in midfield to get into the Hammers 22, before spreading it wide to score again. The next restart was kept infield, and Hammers managed to get a charge down of the attempted Farnham exit. However a soft turnover in a midfield carry gave the ball back to Farnham and they kicked deep into a disorganised Hammers backfield. Scrambling to cover, MacLeod proceeded to completely guddle the catch straight into the path of two Farnham chasers who couldn’t believe their luck and hacked the ball all the way to the hammers try line and only some tidy defensive cover from Ben Dugdale saved a score. However it was merely a stay of execution as Farnham got the shove on from the 5m scrum before their number 8 picked and carried over to score. Hammers were reeling from this rapid fire trio of scores and went into the sheds at halftime 12-17 down, having been in complete control at the 30 minute mark.

In the second half the game opened up a fair bit although still played mostly between the 22s, both teams feeling the strain of the first real 40 mins of the season and gaps opening up. Hammers had brought on substitutes Dan Whitaker, Dan Hostetler, and Emile Binse and all three brought energy and aggression. Farnham struck first, a halfbeak through the tackle followed by an excellent offload and a missed tackle in backfield and they were under the sticks again to go 12-24 ahead. Time for some Gallic flair. A set piece move off a Hammers scrum, with an excellent offload from Charlie, and then great hands from Tim and Miles sent Emile scampering down the left wing, before he pulled off a one handed offload back in to Miles that was more french than an adulterous snail surrendering in a garlic field. Miles scored in the corner and at 17-24 the game was back on.

With their tails up, Hammers forced repeated penalties from the Farnham defence resulting in a yellow card but could not turn this pressure into points. Farnham turned the tables with two lineout steals on the bounce, before Alex Spicer confused his support runners with an attempted goosey in midfield, and as they stared astonished Farnham managed to pilfer possession. From this turnover Farnham broke down the left wing before spreading the ball across and scoring on the right side, 17-29. From the restart Emile and Timmy broke down the wing unfortunately the finishing pass just wasn’t held, but a Farnham penalty gave Hammers a lineout deep in their 22. The call was to the back (shock) and a well executed throw and maul rumbled over the line, conversion made leaving it 24-29.

For the last five minutes Hammers fought hard to get into the Farnham half and were putting pressure on them through multiple strong carries and quick phases however a knock on in dead time killed their hopes of a comeback. Credit to Farnham, a very strong start at Regional 1 and if they continue to take their chances as they did at Hurlingham Park then Hammers will not be the last scalp they claim this season. Hammers were hot and cold, at times looking resplendent and at others with more cobwebs than Rogan’s wallet when he finally gets a round in. Hammers go away to Maidenhead next week and then host Old Alleynians at Hurlingham.