LMH: 12, Jesus: 12
On a terribly wet and cold Tuesday afternoon, it has to be said that the quality of rugby put on show by LMH and Jesus in their 12-12 draw mirrored the weather conditions, for it was an undisciplined and technically poor affair.
This was perhaps to be expected with neither side having yet won a game this season and with both looking at almost certain relegation into college rugby’s third tier. What was perhaps not to be expected, however, was the captivating and tense nature of the match in which both sides scored two tries.
The game began with both sides simply trading mistakes with dubious territorial kicking by both number 10s and poor rucking making a very scrappy opening to the game. Both sides should have got on the score board early on but were denied by their own poor passing, handling and finishing skills. This was shown perfectly when with thirty minutes on the clock, a lovely Jesus backs move pierced the LMH defence leaving the fly half Mike Morton in front of the sticks and with a simple drop goal there to be taken. Yet his dire attempt didn’t even manage to get off the ground, leaving the scores rooted at 0-0.
At this stage it appeared as though the scores would stay at 0-0 for the whole of the first half.
However with only a minute of the first half left, the LMH defence fell asleep. After a good turnover by the Jesus scrum half in the LMH 22, Jesus spread the ball quickly out wide with good fast hands giving them an overlap in the corner, leaving the winger Sam Calderwood to touch down. This nice backs move was then topped off with a superb conversion by Mike Morton, making the score 7-0.
This score fired Jesus into action and they piled the pressure onto the disheartened LMH straight from the second half kick off. This pressure immediately told, with the Jesus number 14 skillfully moving the ball out wide, taking advantage of the narrow defence of LMH. A good, quick ball then led to a Jesus Maul only inches from the try line from which the hooker Carl Turpie easily broke free and touched down for his side’s second try of the game, 12-0.
The situation then got even worse for LMH, with three bad injuries to their pack resulting in them playing a centre as a prop for the last twenty minutes, forcing them into uncontested scrums. Yet it was this depleted LMH pack that began to try and force a comeback for their team.
They hit the Jesus defence hard with strong straight running and vastly improved rucking, both of which gave them an attacking platform. This huge effort then paid off when the LMH number 8 Dom Rae ran hard and straight at the Jesus defence, handing off the first tackler then superbly running through two despairing Jesus tackles, touching down for a try under the posts. This was then duly converted by the full back George Webb to make the score 12-7 and to set up a tense finale.
As LMH began to believe that they could record their first victory of the season. Perhaps eager to score a try, in a moment of foolhardiness the Jesus full back positioned himself far too high up the pitch. This meant that an intended LMH clearance from their 22 ended up landing in a huge space behind the Jesus backline. The ensuing footrace for the ball was between the LMH centre Ben Hilary and a lacklustre Jesus back rower and there was always going to be one winner. After gaining over ten yards on the Jesus lock, Hilary managed to kick the ball on towards the try line and the winger Mbombo Simpungwe-Kaoma then duly touched down under the posts.
So the scores were level and with three minutes remaining in this gritty match, the LMH full back, Webb had a conversion under the posts to win the match. Nerves however got the best of Webb and he hooked his conversion wide and so the score amazingly remained 12-12.
It was a Hollywood ending to a match that lacked glamour and skill but possessed great effort and determination on behalf of both sides. Both of whom, will be hugely relieved to have finally got something out of a rugby game this season and will be hoping that they will soon manage to get a win.
