South v Oakham

South Leicester v Oakham RFC 22/11/15

The one that got away !

The cold weather was upon us as we hosted Oakham RFC at home. Despite the squad of 27 being hampered with injuries and illness we still managed to field a squad of 19 players which was fantastic and set the foundation for an exciting match.

Oakham started the strongest, rucking the ball well and switching play to both sides of the field. South defended though and forced a lineout where Ollie took a lovely clean take and charged up the wing, Oakham managed to stop the drive and from the second lineout played broke down in the middle for the first scrum.

Oakham clearly wanted to revenge their defeat last season and scored the first try on the outside, missing the conversion , 0-5 to Oakham.

From the restart we started to match them up front and we're winning ball, but poor handling from South was starting to cost us possession and some scrappy play me at we were getting nowhere fast. Max took a heavy knock to his leg and had his own version of an airlift off the field by Phil Hunt !

Oakham continued to attack our line and managed a second score, again missing the conversion 0-10 to Oakham.

From the restart Oakham who were really up for it now again broke through some poor tackling making it 0-15 ! The conversion was good - score 0-17

This kick started south and we started to see what we can do, some good work, by the pack made ground, the ball was passed left reaching Alex, who scored a great try in the left corner, forcing his way over ! Well done Alex.

Great effort at the conversion by Jude but just short.

5-17 to Oakham.

2nd Half - after some keen words of advice and refuelled on oranges, South started the half well, Reece making a great attack down the left wing, however Oakham must've had some equally good oranges and from a subsequent scrum attacked our line and scored another try. They missed the kick -

5-22 to Oakham

Oakham were going for it now and it seemed our tackling just disappeared and they ploughed over for an easy try making 5-27. They repeated it again after the kick off making it 5-32 !

Credit to South though, we rallied and weren't going to go out just yet, the tackling made a comeback with Jude putting in some crackers, Ollie, who had worked hard all game, stopping an attack from their centre ( great photo from Gary of this tackle !) and South regaining the ball to take the attack straight at them, Ben, scoring a great try after a frantic surge to the Oakham line. We just missed the conversion, making the final score

10-32 to Oakham.

Lads, take heart that you pulled the score back near the end and there was excellent phases of play but we just weren't consistent enough today and our tackling and passing really needs to be better. Remember though you can't win them all and the most important thing if how we play the game as a team and that you enjoy yourselves !! Win or lose we want to make the opposition know they have been in a corking game and remember what a daunting prospect it is coming to play us at South !!! Rugby is a special game and you will win many many games in future I've no doubt, dust yourselves down, keep your chins up,work hard at training and enjoy being a member of a great squad of lads !!!

Man of the match today was Ollie Cramp ! Well done, loads of hard work, some great tackles and a never give up attitude !

Many thanks to Phil Hunt for sponsoring the match and for his airlifting skills !!