Oaks break spell and dominate 'Brook

23 Oct 2010

The AXV broke their seasons duck with a fantastic display against their bogey team Cranbrook. A well deserved victory with the AXV elated having beaten their bitter rivals. Having got the bounce of the ball going their way now, hopefully we can take this from strength to strength.

Unusually for the A's, the warm-up and pre-match preparation was good and having a strong and disciplined mindset for the onset of the game. This stood us in good stead as the first 10 minutes of the game the AXV were camped in the opposition 22 with the AXV front 5, in particular Somerset Phil's Herculean efforts at number 4, showing clear dominance in the scrimmage and breakdown. Despite repeated pressure, infringements at the ruck and going through the phases Oaks only came away with 3 points from Kavanagh. This spurred Oaks on to secure more points.

At this point, Oaks began to turn the screw with Brennan and Lapham at 2 and 4 respectively causing havoc at the line out ensuring that there was no platform for Cranbrook to play off. From the resulting pressure, with fantastic first up tackling from Phil "Birthday Boy" Warren and Alex Denny Oaks once again had scrimmage ball. From here Kavanagh set the platform as AXV's backs led the charge on the Cranbrook defence. Rosier and Watmough combining brilliantly to give the Cranbrook defence further problems, again, leading to ill-discipline from the tacklers.

From the resulting penalty, Sammy Miles smashed his way through the Cranbrook defence to score. This gave Oaks a healthy lead before halftime.

However Cranbrook began to get a foothold back in the fixture with their number 10 finding regular field position kicking out of hand. This led to a wing to wing move allowing Cranbrook more of a look in. 10-5 at Half time

Replacements made and Notorious Jon Potter on for Somerset Phil and an introduction of Ben Summers for Watmough after a potentially nasty looking injury.   

 From the off, Oaks re-started the game as they began the first half. As Cranbrook came at Oaks with more pressure, the AXV used this against them by putting in huge first up tackles, particularly from Man of the Match Ben Martyr and Dangerous Baldwin who smashed their opposite (and other's opposite) numbers off the park.

As Oaks dominance began to show, the score-line began to reflect this with another try for Oaks scored again by Sammy Miles. The AXV began to show that they were a constant threat with the ball in hand. Perry and John "Hendo" Henley running good lines across the park and drawing in the tackles.

With this platform, Oaks began to move forward again with box kicks from Kavanagh giving strong field position in the opposition 22. As Cranbrook tried to clear their lines Tom Lonergan offloaded to Ben Summers who with an audacious chip and chase bemused the weakened Cranbrook defence to score just shy of the posts.

Cue introduction of Dai Thomas from the bench for the final 20 mins of the game to terrorise the tired Cranbrook backline.

Cranbrook fought till the end of and found themselves in the Oaks 22 for a period. The ever present danger of Nathan Cosh nearly had the legs for a breakaway try from inside the AXV's 22 put the icing on the cake but was stopped short.

A fantastic performance from the boys who sent a message across the league that clearly, our league position doesn't represent the talent the AXV contains.

Next stop....Medway

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