Match Report Archive
Old Elthamians 17 v Sevenoaks 10
22 Jan 2007
The Sevenoaks under 15s travelled to Chislehurst to play their arch rivals Old Elthamians this Sunday. This was always going to be a 'Titanic' clash as our hosts had a score to settle having very narrowly lost to Sevenoaks in last year's Kent Cup semi-final. The day was bright but the pitch resembled a 1st World War battlefield as described by Wilfred Owen. The heavy ground was a perfect setting for the opposing packs who gave the spectators an impressive display of bruising 'industrial' rugby. Such was the intensity of
the contest that an impartial observer might have suspected that not all of the participamts were signatories to the Geneva Convention. It took 21 minutes for our hosts, figuratively speaking, to draw first blood with a scorching try that came from a bull like charge from the Old Elthamians' number 8. The half ended with Oaks 7-0 down.
The 2nd half continued with a further exhibition of visceral rugby with both sides equally matched, respective sets of backs attmepted to play flowing rugby when the forwards gave them the ball but the quagmire of a pitch slowed the game considerably. Never one to concede defeat Oaks' wing Weeks picked up the ball at a messy breakdown on the Sevenoaks' 10 metre line and ran 60 metres at blistering pace through the opposition defence to score under the posts. With the score at 7- 5 hostilities continued. A series of penalties conceded by Sevenoaks afforded Old Elthamians a foothold inside the Oaks' 22 from which they managed to score a second try in the corner but the difficult conditions denied them the conversion. Sevenoaks retaliated with a prolonged period camped in the O.E.'s half. A number 8 pick up by Oak's captain Crane from a srum on the 5 metre line allowed him to commit 2 defenders before he off loaded to Hatton who had the strength to score by the corner flag. Brown narrowly missed this extremely difficult conversion.
A few minutes later centre Spark raised Sevenoaks' hopes with a clever chip and run but was denied a score by the bounce of the ball which went dead before he could touch it down. With the score at 12 -10 and 5 minutes left on the clock Old Elthamians crossed the try line again to take the score to 17-10 which was how the match ended. The game may not have been pretty to watch but it was an object lesson in guts and determination.