Oakham v South

Match report for Oakham v South 14/2/16

It was a sunny but freezing cold day for our away match against Oakham and it was our opportunity to turn the tables on a side that beat us 32-10 in the first half of the season.

Love may have been in the air for this Valentine's Day fixture but there was certainly no love lost between both sides as straight from try kick off it was clear this was going to be a physical encounter. Jack secured a messy loose ball forcing an early scrum. The ball was shipped out but big Cam Goode made a shuddering tackle on one of the Oakham backs and threw down Souths intent to take the game to Oakham.

Play continued and their big centre came clattering down the left wing only to be bravely stopped by Mitch throwing himself into the tackle. Oakham rallied and attacked towards our 22" but South defended strongly which unfortunately resulted in an injury to last weeks man of the match Ben Mullins who left the field.

South drove back at Oakham, taking play back towards the ten yard line, when again Cam, who must've had four weetabix that morning, stormed forward and made a monster hand off that made us all wince for the unfortunate Oakham player !

A maul then ensured and the ball made its way to Luke who went on a rampaging run down the left wing, he was tackled but South were awarded an attacking scrum. The pack were shining and all eight were proving a real handful for the Oakham eight. Max was hooking beautifully and ensuring we were getting good ball and Ollie and Joe were working like steam hammers in the 2nd row.

Oakham as the showed before Christmas though were a dangerous side and they went through phases of play to bring play down towards the side 22" - they piled on the pressure and from a penalty they managed to sneak a try into the right hand corner.

5-0 to Oakham.

South though remained focused which was great to see and straight from the kick off - captain Morgan led from the front and made a hammer of a tackle, this started a series of good phases as both backs and forwards worked the ball forwards, putting some passing ,over together, which was very encouraging to see and took the play deep into the Oakham 22".

The ref awarded a penalty against Oakham and Morgan charged over for a well taken try

5-5 ! Con missed.

Charlie entered the game and it was great to see him darting around smashing into tackles. The play continued with equal possession for both sides but the back row of George, who never stopped running, Mitch and Morgan were making life difficult for the Oakham half backs.

South forced a scrum and Reece, who was quite simply outstanding all game, fed the ball to Callum, who linked in very well with Zach to set jack off on a strong run towards the right wing. Oakham managed to defend well but South had the try line in their sights and took play towards the Oakham posts, the ref awarded another penalty and Reece, who was on fire, took the quick tap and drove over for try and south took the lead !

5-10 to South con missed

HALF TIME.

The oranges and team talk did the trick at half time and South came out of the blocks strongly with Callum running strongly down the middle, with the move only being stopped when the ref judged the pass went forward. Scrum to Oakham who were really under pressure, Cam and Reece were causing havoc for the Oakham defence but some sloppy hands from South let them off.

Play continued and Oakham were awarded one of the few line-outs we had in the game, there was a great steal at the front but Oakham countered and ran out of their 22" to take play towards the 10" line.

Issac then made his first start following a frustrating series of injuries and came on in the 2nd row for Ollie, who had worked like a trooper all game, and it was great to see him back in action. He started strongly and made a great drive into the Oakham pack and followed this up with a solid tackle ! Well done Issac.

Oakham started to turn up the heat and a South gave away a series of penalties but our defence remained solid. Some great tackles for the backs forced play towards the touch and a lineout followed for south. From the next phases, Reece scored a brilliant individual try and scorched down the left wing outstripping the Oakham defence to score a fantastic try ! Boooommm !

5-15 to South.

The lads could sense a win was in the offing and the whole fifteen started to drive forwards, play spun right and the ball was fed to Ronnie, who took play forward beautifully and set the ball for the ensuing ruck. Sam, who made some scything runs out wide and showed some electric pace and James solid on the wing, also took the ball forward testing the Oakham players who were very physical and thumped into our attacks.

They won a ball from a ruck a poured forward along the left wing, Morgan making a desperate tackle to take the play into touch. The lineout was thrown in and again the south defence won possession with Jono (14 today !) taking the ball forward and smashing into the contact. The scrum was awarded and James B who was at hooker ,was battling until the end to win the ball, flashing his foot around in the scrum like an electric eel ! Brilliant.

The backs called an X move, ( which is a mystery to an old forward like myself !) and Jack powered through only to give us minor heart failure with a brief juggling act but recovered to power through their defence and score under the posts.

Callum scored a neat conversion and the score was

5-22 To South.

Play restarted and Oakham, never giving up drove back at us, Sam making a great cover tackle our wide, several mauls later the ref blew for time and we had won a won a great match !!

Final score 5-22 to South !

Lads you all played fantastically well and if my hands hadn't been frozen solid I would've got more of the brilliant moments of play written down. It was fantastic to see how much you all wanted it against a physical team who never gave up and were always going to make it difficult for us. The passing was much better and the tackling more committed and accurate. You played as a team most importantly and supported each other. Team spirit counts for a lot and you showed that if you put your minds to it you can do great things !! Well done all of you, we are all very proud of you !!!!!!