Sat 21 Sep 2019, 15:00
With a cracking win the previous week, a huge turnout of players (3 subs!), and some insider information from coach Will Wheeler at Wednesday training “they are a big side, you’ll run rings around them”, OM 2’s were in confident spirits leading up to our first home fixture.
Unfortunately, coach’s intel was wrong – Dunstable turned up with a young, fit, and very well drilled side. It was clear to us that this was going to be an immensely tight fixture. I would say we knew this from the get-go, however a second coach cock-up meant we didn’t have a referee booked for our match. One of Dunstable’s coaches had a level two referee qualification, and it looked for a moment that we would have to endure being refereed by the opposition, something none of us were too keen about. Fortunately, with the timely arrival of club secretary Nick Cockburn at 3:05pm, he agreed to ref the game for us and his previous championship-level referee experience was put to good use. Hopefully this will be the last time an OM 2XV match is refereed by a man in a Hawaiian shirt and boat shoes.
The OM’s got off to a flying start, forcing Dunstable to give away a penalty just outside the 22 immediately after kickoff, right in front of the posts. Any sensible team would have taken the three points, however it appears age has finally caught up with Ralph Murduck, who decided in a moment of ludicrousness to take a quick tap penalty and go himself with no support, which ultimately led to a turnover. Clearly not learning from his mistake, Ralph would proceed to repeat this five more times during the match.
In the first 30 minutes of the match you could not separate the two teams in terms of physicality and quality of rugby. This was certainly the highest level of rugby that I have ever played in for an OM 2’s side (although admittedly with a sample size of four the reliability of my claim may be challenged). Within the first 30 OM’s conceded two tries and scored one, with a lovely break from Ralph Murduck. Incidentally, this try actually culminated from one of Ralphs quick taps, which is probably why he continued with them despite my protests.
Unfortunately, around the 30 minute mark, debutant fly half Harry James dislocated his knee for what must be the 17th time in his short rugby career. Second debutant Silas Jeffrey stepped up to the mark and played 10 in Harry’s place, and considering how much he hated playing 10 back at school I give him full credit for taking one for the team.
A third Dunstable try came from a high kick from Dunstable’s 10 and misread from Alex Spencer-Hope, who was probably staring at his girlfriend on the touch line, which resulted in a bouncing ball and a break away try. My only recommendation for AS-H is to not bring your girlfriend to fixtures, because I’ve seen you play much better rugby than you did this Saturday without this unnecessary distraction. Fortunately for us, Dunstable’s fly half was much better kicker with the ball-from hand than on the kicking tee, which kept us in the game. Half Time OM’s 7, Dunstable 15.
After the break, we had a quick team shuffle. Captain Phil Hadji decided to move himself to the centres, however upon realising that he had reached the age where he couldn’t run faster than second gear anymore, he moved swiftly back into the pack, and we moved the far younger Emilio Oratis to the centres instead.
OM’s let in another soft try and heads began to droop. Thankfully, we had John O’Shea on the side-line. He drove up to us on his scooter and gave us all a highly motivating pep talk, which reignited our spirits. Some massive upfront tackles from Max Traeger and Emilio Oratis further revitalised our attitude, and we spent over 15 minutes in Dunstable’s 22. Things got pretty heated, with Emilio at one point in a small cuffuffle with a Dunstable player that ended up with a couple of obstructed windpipes.
We finally scored after around four attempts, with a great try from Oli Wetzig. The most memorable of these attempts came from Merody, who upon catching the ball from a high kick decided to run with it in one hand stretched out in front of him like he was carrying the Olympic torch, as if to tempt the opposition to reach out and grab it. He broke through every player except the full-back, who decided to tackle Merody instead of reaching for the ball like the rest of his teammates, causing a knock on. A well deserved dick of the day moment. At 60 mins, OM’s 14, Dunstable 22.
The final 20 minutes was end to end rugby. We must have spent an equal time in our own 22 and Dunstable’s 22, and you could not separate the teams. No points were scored between 60 and 70 minutes, thanks to all round cracking defence, and some pretty shoddy attack with at least another three opportunities failing to convert. After 70 minutes, three more tries were scored, and unfortunately, we only scored one of them – a fantastic second individual effort from Ralph Murduck. The ones we let in were soft; one through the middle and one first phase off a scrum lost against the head. Final score OM 2XV 21, Dunstable 2XV 32.
All in all, a great performance from the OM 2XV against a very tough opponent. With a little more practice at finishing try scoring opportunities we could have easily won it, and that is something we can definitely work on over the coming weeks. Here’s to a smashing season and let’s build on our great performance for our next match.
In the words of Nick Cockburn himself, “I think that was by some way the best OMs 2s performance i have seen for many years and one of the best 2s games I have been involved in outside the National Leagues.”
Match Report by: Will Donald
MOTM: Will Donald – I don’t choose it, I played alright I guess
DOTD – Alex Merody – forgot he’s playing rugby and not in the Olympic opening ceremony
