Animals at Middlesex Festival

Ealing 5 v Twickenham 5

On a bright sunny Sunday morning all the guys finally made it to Ealing after traffic jams, left at home boots and going to the wrong location.

Looking around the other teams it appeared that they had all decided to pick the biggest guys they could find for their teams. Twickenham lined up against Ealing in their first match. Ealing’s game plan as with all the other teams we seem to play recently is give it to the biggest boy on the pitch the ball and let him run. With precise passing from the back of the scrum by Ali L Twickenham attempted to play attractive passing rugby however the final pass just could not reach its destination. After Ealing scored with a (yes you’ve guessed) it a big boy crashing through try the guys woke up. A superb dummy by Sam then a break through the gap to score was the highlight of the game. Great defensive play stopped the Ealing boys in their tracks however we just couldn’t make the last pass count.

Finchley 10 V Twickenham 5

Again we lined up against another massive team with the same game plan. Both of their trys came from the big runner crashing over. Great line out work by Jamie the salmon helped Twickenham to have a much better game. Callum was involved in almost every maul and a massive try saving tackle by Thomas stopped Finchley going over for a third try. After a storming run by Ellis, Reece gathered the ball from the back of the ruck and slipped down the blindside into the corner for a try. After the break we suffered an injury, Jack carried the ball into contact taking 3 players to tackle him he received a dead leg ruling him out of the rest of the tournament. All we needed was one more try to top the group but it would just not come. With the coach (me) still suffering from my own disappointment at losing in the semi-final of the Middlesex bowl the previous day I think I was too harsh on the boys and for that I’m sorry. You are a great team if we carry on training and trying to play a passing game I think in the long run we will become the better team. If you watch the All Blacks they can all pass and run with the ball. It doesn’t just involve the biggest players hitting up and not passing and becoming a one trip pony team. I know I get emotional (the Staines coach words) at times but it’s because I care about the boys and the team so sorry.

Twickenham O V Harrow 0

The last game summed up the day. We played some great rugby but with the last pass not reaching its destination and a couple of wrong decisions (please stop running back into the pack) meant we just couldn’t near the Harrow line. Great scrummaging by Ali S, Reece, Jamie and Kieran gave us great platform ball against a massive pack. Our defence held strong with both Andy and Alex making a number of one on one tackles against their opposite number. With Ali S captaining the team for the first time he really stepped up to the plate with a massive game.

(Greg)