With the Rhino’s second team mid-way through a hard-fought and relatively disappointing campaign; a win over Staines RFC was the only result available to this diverse squad who needed a win to kick-start the second half of their season.
The day began in true Rhinos twos fashion with some last minute changes, call-ups and drop outs affecting what was becoming an increasingly impressive squad list. Spirits were almost dampened, when true to form, Salty failed miserably in yet another courageous attempt to arrive on time. Alas he did eventually make it, and with the team making their way by bus, train, tube and tom-tom halfway across the country to Staines RFC – which as the geographically aware Pert, pointed out, is in fact in Feltham and not Staines.
The club house, teeming with activity due to all three Staines teams playing at home, provided the platform and motivation for the Rhino twos to inflict their second away win of the season. Despite the changing room only being sizeable enough for a girl’s netball team; the twos squeezed in with some members notably enjoying the close proximity of their comrades more than others. Nevertheless a good fifteen minutes passed before our benevolent Skipper and his party arrived bearing kit and excuses for their lateness, roundly eyed with suspicion as Big Mac boxes were hastily stuffed into pockets.
A renewed confidence and enthusiasm spread throughout the changing room as Tim ‘Hutch’ Hutchins read out the team sheet which pointed to the weightiest pack that either Rhino’s teams had put out all season. New boys Dan ‘Rhino’ Thompson, Rob ‘Handles’ Handley, Tom ‘The White Rabbit’ Burrows and Adam ‘Barrel’ Berry all up to make their seasonal debut for the twos. This hefty forward pack would need to be complimented by an equally gifted set of backs and the team would not be disappointed as Hutch reeled off the names of the glory boys, with each name read bestowing further belief that a win was on the cards; Pert, Sykes, Pert, Paddy, Wolleston and hot prospect, Andy ‘whose surname is now known’ Hammond.
The team took to the field, following a quick warm up, stretch and handling drill, were treated to a rousing team talk from Head Coach Hutch, who would serve to be a driving force on the sideline throughout the game. With Haringey fired up and each player earmarking their opposite number for a smashing, the referee sent the game underway with a sharp blast on his whistle.
With the pack to Haringey’s left, the Staines’ kick-off attained some good height, which, due to the powerful cross-wind and low sun, proved difficult to deal with by the receivers. The ball was spilled and recovered by the Staines’ forwards; who quickly leapt on the disarray of the Haringey defensive line and powered the ball out wide in one of the rare displays of decent handling by the West London side. With the ball arriving to the right wing, it was wing-on-wing and up to Sykes to deliver a crunching tackle to put stop to the Staines advance. Unfortunately for Haringey, Sykes failed to live up to the expectations of his plaudits and did not make the tackle crunching, or even at all; almost injuring himself in a vague attempt at a cuddle.
Fortunately for the floundering wing, sturdy full-back Wolleston provided ample cover alongside Matt Pert who had tracked back from ten to squash the marauding winger’s hopes of glory. Haringey recovered quickly, dispatching a kick to the right of up-field. With sheer contempt by the forces of nature, as if the Gods themselves were set against Haringey’s prospects, the ever-growing wind blew the kick off course and following a series of breakdowns and cock-ups, Staines were the first to cross the try-line in the bottom left corner and notch up their first five points of the game, ten minutes in.
With spirits deflated and heads beginning to creep down, defiant Skipper Pert gathered his team and rallied his troops to begin the fight-back. The Haringey forwards clearly got this message loud and clear and following a quick kick off, going down the left again, met and crossed the gain line with each phase of play. The forwards’ play paid tribute to the coaching staff’s efforts on Thursday with real ground being stolen from pod after pod, wave after unrelenting wave of Haringey attack with no man taking the ball into contact unsupported. The profits of such tactics and in-play awareness by the Haringey pack were quickly reaped with heavyweight second-row Brad Vernon smashing his way under the sticks, shrugging off countless challenges and swearing fluently on his run from just inside the twenty-two. Wolleston secured the conversion for all seven points.
The rest of the first half continued with no score being achieved by either side despite prolonged assault on the Staines defence, spearheaded by flying fortress, Tom Pert, who’s efforts at inside centre saw two tries declared held up by the referee, who was unable to reach the offending pile of bodies in time to see Pert clearly ground the pill. Not being one for putting up with foul-play, Pert pointed out to his opposite number the error of their ways and was rebuked by the Staines man who was later to leave the pitch injured after aggravating a dodgy knee. Other backs participation saw faultless service from scrum-half Dave Ouda, a mesmerising inside run from Sykes and the emergence of a new passing style from Patrick ‘Paddy’ Woodman who insisted on taking the ball into contact, spinning around and then off-loading for the rest of the game; fortunately for him, this proved both effective and attractive rugby.
With Brad Vernon leaving the pitch in a blaze of glory after his try and following a smart reshuffle by Hutch; replacing Andy with John ‘Utah’ McDevitt, directing Brad to re-join his team and identifying Dan ‘Rhino’ Thompson’s as-then undiscovered talents at eight, replacing reliable Owen Steinle. Again the Gods played havoc with Haringey’s fortunes clouding out the sun that had blighted Haringey’s defence of the high ball in the first half and changing the direction of the wind from up to down to left to right.
Nevertheless, tactical mastery was at hand, with two tries in quick succession by the savvy side-stepping of the new number eight and good old fashioned steam-rollering of the opposition; at fifty-five minutes in the Rhino’s score now stood at seventeen points to five.
The unrelenting pressure of the Rhino’s squad and with consistently heavy hits being enforced by both backs and forwards meant that something had to give; unfortunately for both teams, it was by way of injury to the Staines front row meaning un-contested scrums were on the cards for the rest of the game. This would almost certainly be a blow to the Rhinos given their overwhelming domination in the scrum for the entire game. Clearly disillusioned by the current state of affairs and suffering from lax concentration within the entire Rhinos team, seven points were leaked as a Staines forward slammed over the line securing five points, duly converted to seven on sixty minutes.
Resisting the urge to self-implode and squander their current lead, the Rhinos attacked the kick off; putting pressure on the receiver and securing a line out deep into opposition territory. Rob ‘Handles’ Handley and Nick Yates further exploited their excellent partnership at the lineout which led to the same move being used at every single Rhinos’ lineout. Through deceptive calling and rapacious movement from the forwards however, the Staines side were kept guessing and the lineout was won.
After a number of phases and through stampeding use of pod tactics, the Rhinos forged a prominent position in the centre of the pitch, just outside the opposition twenty-two. Serviceman, Ouda, looked up to his left, then to his right; carefully assessing the situation like a rugby based eagle searching for the opposition’s weakness. With a little help from a shout from blindside winger Utah, the moment had come and the decision been made; to the sparkly-eyed nine’s right stood Barrel, Sykes, Utah and Wolleston with only two defenders to compete with, to his left the rest of the Rhino’s squad and a full team of defenders. With incisive decision making and quick balancing of chance that only a nine is blessed with, Ouda took his decision. Left he would go.
His decision making was however vindicated, given that he had seen something which the players to his right had not; a small gap in the bottom left corner, through which he broke through and scored amidst a maelstrom of players.
This was surely it, the confidence and momentum that the Rhino squad needed, the kick off and chase led to a series of phases for both teams, but which eventually led to a break down the right, Pert popped to Pert, Pert then sending the ball crashing into the path of Ouda who gratefully received the ball, making strides as he took the ball into contact, off-loading to the talismanic Sykes, who took an inside step, fixed two defenders. Ouda to his left and Wolleston to his right, Sykes toyed with the idea of backing himself, but humble as ever, chose to release Wolleston, unopposed on the right flank. It was however not to be; clearly mesmerised by the duo that was Sykes and Ouda, Wolleston mistook his arse from his elbow and spilled the pill, teeing him up for Dick of the Day.
Taking this all in good humour the Rhinos continued to repel attacks, frequently in the form of cross kicks, with the home-side making the most of the erratic wind; however these were all dealt with ably by the full-back and blindside winger. Further forward surges into opposition territory proved repeatedly successful with forwards picking and driving as they fancied; unfortunately poor handling from both forwards and backs aggravated by the influence of the wind, led to more points being squandered.
However no sooner had momentum slowed down, did it lead to more point scoring with a flash of brilliance from the forward pack, turning the ball over at the breakdown and releasing the right flank; through the hands it went before reaching Utah who had made his way across from fourteen to thirteen and a half. He graciously received the ball and despite the inevitable overlap created from inspirational positional play, used his side step to great effect, beating three men with a winding run over the try line to slot another five on the board with five minutes to go.
The scores stood at 12-27 with the Rhinos itching to close out the game. Given the dramatic turn of events many of the first team supporters, who had paid to watch the first team play, had left the neighbouring pitch to join Hutch on the sideline to watch this titanic battle play out. Despite a defeat on the cards, the home crowd exploded into rapturous applause as Sykes left the field to be replaced by Hammond.
With less than five minutes on the clock, the home side could well have been forgiven for shutting up shop and retreating to their twenty-two, however with an impressive display of resilience and fortitude, exacerbated by some handling errors by the Rhinos, the ball was spread wide from the breakdown and into the hands of the Staines’ winger, who, with a sidestep and noticeable mono-brow was able to evade the Rhino’s defensive line and run home a try despite the valiant efforts of both Utah and Ouda, with an attempted ankle tap and hold up respectively.
With eighty minutes played and the scores finalised at 17-27 to the Rhinos, the pleasure of victory was difficult to hide from the faces of the away side. The post-mortem from both Perts and Hutch identified the strengths of the performance but also the fact that the game should have been put to bed long ago and that there had been many more points available to the team which had not been taken.
Players of mention naturally included the entire pack for their demolition at the scrum and breakdown, alongside, Paddy for a notable performance at thirteen and Ouda for his service in difficult conditions. Man of the match was awarded to Nick Yates who put in a valiant effort and was available for countless off-loads, drives and tackles. Dick of the Day was split between Wolleston for his unfortunate spill and Rhino for having ‘pass aversion’ and trying to score every time he had the ball.
The result in no way meant the season is saved, but with a renewed confidence and growing dynamism as a team, the Rhinos’ twos can hold their heads high and expect to deliver promising performance next Saturday when they face the London Welsh at home.
(Staines RFC 3XV) 17-27 (Haringey 2XV)
Tom ‘Psycho’ Sykes
(1) Tim Salter (2) Adam Berry (3) Tom Burrows (4) Rob Handley – Pack Leader (5) Brad Vernon* (6) Nigel Flynn (7) Nick Yates (8) Owen Steinle (9) Dave Ouda* (10) Matt Pert – Captain (11) Tom Sykes (12) Tom Pert (13) Patrick Woodman (14) John McDevitt* (15) Oli Wolleston (16) Dan Thompson** (17) Andy Hammond. Tim Hutchins and Aimee Broadbent as part of the Rhino’s contingent.
