Valentine's Day Love All Around For Chough's

A strong Choughs squad headed out to Syon lane 'en masse' for an early kick-off at Grasshoppers. Miraculously 16 players made the meet time, a Choughs’ season record. With over an hour to Kick-off a confused skipper was unsure of what to do being more accustomed to panicking, ringing people and finally running out for a warm-up with 15 mins to go.

With a good warmup done and with our southern hemisphere stragglers arriving, we went to the changing room to put shirts on with a full squad and 7 subs.

Coin toss won (12 of 14 this year! #statsthatmatter) we were receiving the ball, but had the wind with us.

***The following report is highly unlikely to be accurate but all points scorers will be at bottom of page!!**

The game started on a ‘dummy-catch’, tactically pushed backwards by one of the Choughs’ second row and the rugby started!
Early in the game an ankle injury to stand in fly-half Giles Humphries forced him off the pitch (looks like a possible season ender, gutted!) a shuffle brought James Tovey off the bench and Ali Lindsay moved out one to play his first game at 10.

Early pressure from Grasshoppers kept us in our half, but this would soon change as our pack began to work well together and our strong set piece came into play. Sucking their players into rucks and mauls allowed us to open spaces in midfield with Will Drake and Mark Shields starting to punch holes in the middle of the pitch. Ali Lindsay throwing dummy passes and switches from 10, confusing us as much as the oppo but working to great overall effect.

I think Drakey was the one to make the first break over the line, left of the posts. Wing Lawley slotting the conversion through the middle of the posts.

Again rugby happened, a good platform being set-up from the forwards eventually seeing the ball being swung out wide, wing Jack Frazier beating his man to touch down very wide right. An extremely difficult conversion being hit by the hammer that is Lawley’s boot straight through the posts. Questions were being asked as to why Rob hadn’t been kicking all season! 0 -14 to the Choughs.

The Choughs were banishing all memories of a poor home performance last week and continued to dominate possession. A big driving maul followed by a couple of pick and go’s, saw Matthew Pollard over the line for his fourth Try of the season (to everyone’s disgust) and equal with O’Sullivan at the top of the try scoring charts. Conversion made. 0-21.

A safe take and after several phases a good boot into the corner from self-titled ‘Shoulder of Boom’ Shieldsy saw a lineout 10 metres out. After a strong driving maul, 2nd Row Joe Welsh spotted the gap on the blind and ran through for another try in the left corner. A first miss from Lawley at another difficult angle. 0 -26.

At some point around this time Drakey picked up from the back of a ruck and stormed through the midfield. Slowing and attempting to be clever he was unceremoniously put in reverse and sat down by his opposite number, drawing the loudest applause from the small Grasshoppers crowd on the balcony.

Lloyd Jones was off after a dislocated thumb and replaced by vegetarian Scotsman Andy Collie.

A couple of minutes later a quick ball was passed wide from a turnover. A poor pass to Drakey was scooped up by the skipper and flung wide to Joe Forster with the forward breaking a tackle and stepping a man before running through a scoring under the posts. Conversion successful from Lawley. 0-33.

With the score-line increasing in the Chough’s favour we continued to press our advantage and soon the rarest of sight was to be seen on the Grasshoppers field. After some strong pick and go’s inside the Grasshoppers 22 a two man break saw myself wrestling the ball off Drakey, with only one man to beat nobody was stopping an overweight Scillonian with some momentum and without a try for two years crossing the line, I’m unsure of where the high pitched yelp of delight came from but it is known to have cracked windows and caused car crashes in the local area. Conversion hit 0-40.

After this is doesn’t really matter……. But I’ll attempt to carry on!

Before half-time there was still time for another try, a driving maul and break taken over the line by Pollard and Tovey, the try definitely going to James!!! Half Time score 0 – 47.

Pete Myatt was on at 7 for me. 2014/14 Chough reg, Turi McLeod-Bennett returning to the club for a game at the ground where he first played had come on to replace Forster. Fellow Kiwi Phil Worner replaced Will Murray at hooker and debutant George Carne was on at Prop for Pollard.

As I chatted to D and Fletch on the side-lines the Choughs flew back out of the blocks and whilst trying to figure out how Thom Lang’s camera worked Rich Fisher was skipping through the grasshoppers defence and using his famed pace to score our 8th try of the day.

More rugby happened. Ali Lindsay scored a good sniping try throwing a dummy pass before cutting inside and under the posts. Andy Collie scored his first try of the season in the corner and Turi McLeod-Bennett scored our 11th from 11 different players late on to the right of the posts.

With Grasshoppers heads starting to completely drop, and 12 minutes left on the clock I agreed with the opposition coach to call time. Final score 0 – 71 to the Choughs.

After a team photo, it was time for the showers and bar. Later to be followed by some danger train (and an embarrassing performance by the skipper, seeing more beer going up his nose than down his neck!) back to the Chough’s Clapham heartlands.

A really well drilled performance, in a game where the ball could easily have just been flung around wide we kept discipline all around the field and keeping a structure like this will see us well against stronger teams to come.

A big thanks to Grasshoppers for playing this one, they lost players late to their 1st team and had several of their academy boys in the team.

Squad: Fisher, Murray, Pollard, Forster, Welsh, Dowie, Newton, Drake, Lindsay, Humphries, Frazier, Shields, Jones, Lawley, Lang.

SUBS (All Used): Tovey, Collie, McGregor, McLeod-Bennett, Worner, Carne, Myatt

Tries: Drake, Pollard, Frazier, Forster, Tovey, Newton, Welsh, Fisher, Collie, Lindsay, McLeod-Bennett
Con: Lawley x 8

M.o.M: Rob Lawley (Great with the boot, slotting some very difficult conversions) James Tovey (jumped in early off the bench doing a solid job at 9, great box kicking and deprived Pollard of a try!)

D.o.D Will Drake (could have got m.o.m but got absolutely sat down by oppo at one point and conceded 10 metres for chatting back to the ref when 50 points ahead.)