Bicester Under 13’s v Marlow - match report

After the previous weeks County Plate match with Gosford All Blacks conceding the match having only twelve players available to take to the field, before a pass or tackle was made, this week against what was considered to be a strong test for the boys an old fashioned Rugby “Mud” Match was played out between the two teams.

With all the other matches at the venue being cancelled due to the large amount of rain having fallen during previous few day, the main match left was ours!

After Paul receiving the disappointing news early that some of the best recent performers in the way of Ryan, Allan and Liam were all late withdrawals and unavailable for the first match against Marlow.

With a few others missing Bicester were down to a bare 16 players, (although the young coaching staff did offer to make up the Subs Bench offer declined! Although Luke did offer to give Paul’s Shorts a run out as it had been a long time they had had one).

With the boys being moved positionally around to cover the absentees, and requested to give there all both individually and collectively as a team, the game was set.

The Team:

Front Row:
Chris and Sam were the Props with Ed Tolly as Hooker.

2nd Row:
The Tale of the two Jacks, one big un, in Jack Cowly and one little un in Jack Taylor.

Flankers: Tim and Max.

No 8: Giles.

The Backs lines up with:

Francoir at Scrum half, Ed Hines at Fly half, Charlie at Inside Centre, Tom Outside Centre, Jack Davis on one wing with Luke on the other wing.

Full Back: The ever reliable Josh.

Covering all positions as the “one and only” David.

With the home side having no fewer then 31 players it was agreed that there would be 3 x 20 minutes halves or should it be thirds?

It was suggested that Marlow could provide the Bicester team with a few extra players if required, when mentioned to the boys, “will not need them” was the reply.

Game on!

Bicester started with a bang, and within seconds were charging in to the opposition with Charlie leading the way.

Mud Glorious Mud the say, this was the real thing, the pitch quickly turned into one big mud bath with the only part where there was a blade of grass was on the wings and that area was very wet and slippy!

Bicester spent the best part of the first third in the Marlow half, constantly pressing and when the did not have the ball the never let Marlow out of there 22 with the ball in hand, resulting in Marlow simply kicking all possession away and electing to take the lottery of line outs.

With the forwards pressing hard with the only shortfall in their game again with some of the players lack of clearing out at the rucks causing them to lose their well earned ball.

With Max, Tim and Giles making lots of tackles in the loose and winning good ball which was fed to the backs who tried eagerly to break out of the mud in an attempt to break the opponents defensive lines, after a few very close encounters with the Marlow try line by both Charlie and Tom who were well fed by the half backs Ed & François, with good play from the Wingers Luke and in particular Jack who was pole-axed at one time yet still off loaded the ball in full flight prior to hitting the ground before sliding a full 5m on his rear in the mud, bringing allowed cheer from the crowd.

It was left to Tim to show the backs how it was done after good work from the two Jacks in the pack with both punching above their weight with big Jack having just started playing doing excellent work in the line outs causing Marlow a constant problem and Jack Taylor putting in a lot of hard work often showing others how to set a ruck. Tim received the ball in the middle of the pitch, played a little run around with Tom and shot down the line showing his speed and confidence with the ball in hand running some 30m to the try line, then showing his maturity by changing direction to enable him to score under the posts.

Easy Conversion for you know who! Tim.

Bicester 7 Marlow 0.

Marlow attempted to put the pressure on by testing the Full back Josh with some high kicks all of which were gathered with all but one being run back at them on each occasion Josh mad good distance and set up another assault by his fellow players, on the remaining time Josh decided to show us all that he to could kick the ball belting it back from where it had come from to see if the Marlow players could catch as well as he could. Answer No they could not.

After failing with the full back the Wings were tested with the same reply with neither Luke or Jack dropping a single ball even when under pressure by their opponents or
the slippy conditions with the ball to hand or mud under foot.
Bicester saw out the first third never being in danger and always stopping the Marlow players in their tracks with some great tackling by the boys lead by Charlie in the backs and Max in the pack.

The 2nd Third started with Marlow bringing on no fewer then 10 new players ready to take on the challenge, the game played the same way with Bicester again containing the Marlow runners well, with good tackles from all the boys, constantly breaking up their attempts to break through, Marlow returned to their previous tactic of simply kicking from hand rather then trying to pass the ball.

Bicester’s only disappointment was that they continued to fail to clear out at the rucks thus losing good position where if they had retained the ball the backs were set ready to strike, after much effort and hard work the 2nd third was played out with no score to either side, although it was Bicester trying to play the ball in hand with some good passing between them all.

The final third was a hard fought game with the conditions taking there toll, the pitch was now more of a mud bath then a rugby pitch, Bicester although starting to tire were still trying to break the line of the Marlow defence with Max and Tim hard at work in the around the fringes of the pack constantly smothering the Marlow scrum half before he was able to make his pass from the base of his scrum.

Ed was feeding Charlie at centre, but no one seemed to be able to get clear mostly due to the slippy mud, with the Bicester Scrum starting to struggle Marlow constantly kick to Josh at full back, Josh continued to run the ball back well however as the Bicester team slowed they started to be a little late in the support for Josh, (next time in similar conditions Josh has been instructed to clear his lines by putting his boot through the ball so as to give his fellow players something to chase and also play the opponents in there half opposed to ours.

After offering nothing more then kicking the ball as an attacking option Marlow got lucky with on one the kicks clearing Luke on the wing who turned to collect the ball only to find an opponent to be a head of him, from the side it was clear that the player was clearly off side and ahead of the kicker by a very long way, with no whistle the chase was on with Luke just failing to cut out the ball due to the Marlow player just managing to kick the ball as Luke was about to gather it.

The try was scored in the corner making the conversion impossible to convert thus keeping the score at:

Bicester 7 Marlow 5.

Bicester worked again with François trying a few blind side runs with Giles at his side, but the gallant effort of almost an hour in the mud resulted in the game becoming slower, all 16 Bicester boys were giving their all in the heavy conditions and had to battle hard to prevent the fresher Marlow players (remembering they had no less then 31 players available) scoring holding up the ball on a few occasions, after one such try attempt being held up Tim took a clever drop kick from the 22m line, he did a little dink of a drop kick and quickly picked up his own kick to quickly gather pace to set up a good passing line that resulted in the ball being switched from one wing to another with great speed, the ball ended up in the hands of Luke on the wing who took off on a powerful surging run that took him some 60m to within 1m of the Marlow try line only to see him just lose control of the ball after a desperate tackle.

That was thought to be the last play of the game with the time up on the clock, yet back came the Marlow team themselves try so hard to get a winner against a team that all from the side including the home supporters were a better then the Marlow team, with the referee seeming to be enjoying the game playing on a further 5 minutes past the twenty, Marlow got their try under the posts, this time the conversion was taken resulting in a very hard fought win for Marlow:

Bicester 7 Marlow 12

After the game the team were gathered and informed that not only had they played their hearts out giving their all, they had also won over the Marlow boy’s parents who were amazed at their effort, endeavour to play the ball in hand and their discipline.

Big Well Done to all, very proud of you all.