12 December 2009
Anchorians v Cranbrook
This match has traditionally become known as the Tony Younger Memorial Match in
memory of the A’s player who died suddenly in 2005 and A’s were really up for
this match both in his memory and following the disappointment of last weeks
match cancellation at Ashford.
Playing into the sun Anthony O’Brien (AOB) kicked off straight into the arms of
the Cranbrook No 6 who made a powerful run back at the forwards swiftly
following up the kick. With such weight
of numbers against them they opted to kick the ball clear of their half
straight into the waiting hands of skipper full back Adam Davison who, blinded
by the sun managed to knock the ball on but with the referee playing advantage
the visitors continued making ground into the A’s 22 before being bought to
ground and giving away a penalty for holding on in the tackle. This enabled AOB to clear the A’s lines with
a well placed, long distance kick well into the visitors half to find touch. The resultant line out was lost and the
visitors kicked the ball up field which was caught by Davison at pace and run
back into the visitors half before being pulled to ground with a well placed
tackle. ‘Mad’ Mick McLorn tided up the
loose ball and was also bought to ground after just a few yards. Unfortunately the tackler took such a shine
to Mick that he held on to him just a little too long and a penalty was awarded
just to the left of the posts well within the kicking range of O’Brien who
converted the penalty to the first points of the game. At the restart the ball was caught well by
Adam ‘George’ Webb who passed the O’Brien who, spotting a gap chipped the ball
for winger Brett Little to chase but was seen to be offside by the match
official who awarded a penalty. Play
suddenly seemed to be focused at the A’s end with only excellent defensive work
keeping the visitors at bay. However,
forced errors continued to blight the A’s defence and from a scrummage 5 metres
out the ball just rolled gently out of the back of the scrum and over the line
which was spotted by the keen eyed scrum half who dived on the ball to register
5-points for an unconverted try to the visitors. Now on the back foot A’s redoubled their
efforts to get back into the visitors scoring zone and when one of their
players was ‘binned’ for collapsing a maul A’s forwards used the advantage to
rumble over the line for Pat Richardson to drop over the line with ball in hand
to score a try. To the soulful tune of
‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon’ from a nearby Christmas party O’Brien stepped up to
increase the lead by another 2 points with a successful conversion to make the
score 10-5 at half time.
In the second half A’s were now playing with the sun in their favour but dark
clouds were brewing in more ways than one and that advantage was lost
quickly. The kick off from Cranbrook
found Davison who charged back through the centre of the field before finding
ground. The ball was popped back to Prop
Dan Perry who ran the ball on making 40 metres before he finally toppled to the
ground well inside the visitors half and knocking the ball on. Cranbrook tidied the ball up and continue to
apply pressure through powerful scrums and high speed runs which forced many
errors by the A’s including missed tackles and a high penalty count which
inevitably resulted points in the visitors favour with the score line rolling
up to 17-10. A’s tried to ring some
changes with Dave Partridge coming on for Perry, Chris Everest for Keith White
and Andy Wylie replacing Richie Kyle. Fresh legs made some difference with A’s
charging back into the visitors half allowing Richardson to score his second
try of the match to bring A’s to within 2 points. Unfortunately the conversion was unsuccessful
and the gap remained at 2-points.
However, Cranbrook were determined to build on their score and took
advantage of the A’s jubilation at scoring to make a return visit to the A’s
scoring zone with their number 8 running in to score another quick unconverted
try making the score now 22-15. With the
minutes ticking away A’s new that they needed a converted try and a penalty to
win. They threw themselves into the last
ten minutes driving forward at every opportunity to get toward the try line but
time was running out. In the dying
seconds A’s were awarded a penalty just in front of the posts but opted to go
for the draw and Richardson piled over the line to put the ball down but the
referee called it as held up and awarded another penalty to A’s for the visitor
not being 10 metres before the tackle.
Taking a deep breath they piled in again and once again the ball crossed
the line only for the referee to make the most dubious decision of the game to
say it was held up again allowing the visitors to register a win at 22-15. A
disappointing end to an excellent game of rugby with the visitors lifting the
Tony Younger Memorial Trophy presented by his son Tom.
Anchorians Man of Match was Alex Brown.
The next league game is on Saturday 19 December at Vigo Village.
Report by Clive Davison