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1st XV v East London H

1st XV v East London H

Aidan Mersh17 Jan 2022 - 12:08
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Backline score 5 tries to complete comeback

Romford’s faithful regularly pray for a miracle at the Park. This week we thought that there must have been a mistranslation from the original Welsh of the prayer, because we got a miracle at the Car Park. On arrival we were greeted with a gleaming expanse of Romford black tarmac. Opinions clearly differed, though, on the purpose of the baffling white lines. The question was: could the Park players live up to their car park?

Park started brightly, with both forwards and backs carrying well for Jack Worth to crash over the line and score. However, East London lost no time in replying, when Park lost possession from the kick-off, and after less than five minutes the score stood at 7-7.

Both sides slowed the pace. A period of strong Park pressure was not rewarded, and it was East London who scored next – a wonderful solo try by their winger, who chipped the ball over the Park defence for himself to catch, and then ran half the length of the pitch. 14-7.
Park started to make mistakes, and were punished for their indiscipline when East London slotted a penalty, and also scored a try after putting the Park defence under heavy pressure. Park were now 24-7 down.

Meanwhile Professor Ryan Blinkhorn was having a very good game at 9 behind a dominant Park scrum, varying his choice of exit from the base of the ruck and clearing our lines with some well taken box kicks. He had spent the Dagenham game analysing the chemical reactions in the pack through his scrum cap. He now decided to conduct some experiments to see what would happen if he passed the ball out to the backs. This was bold, as experience earlier in the season had shown that there are some combustible elements out there, so far from the known universe in the scrum.

Ryan’s experiments duly bore fruit when Park staged a bit of a revival, and Matt Taylor took advantage of a stretched East London defence to leave the score 24-12 at half time.

Again, Park started the second half moving the ball fast, and moved smoothly up the pitch to put Jamie “the Beast” Harbour over in the corner. At 24-17, Romford’s faithful foolishly began to hope. However, East London now produced a good twenty minutes of slow, safe and nice play, during which Park tackled well, but had trouble getting out of their own half. It looked as if the Park players were tiring. East London’s pack got on top in the tight. They were now well in control, and calmly took advantage of territory to score twice.

With fifteen minutes to go at 36-17 there seemed to be little hope. Romford’s faithful wondered whether the rugby on the screen in the club house might be less distressing, but gritted their teeth and re-filled their plastic glasses. They were rewarded with a real miracle. This was the best fifteen minutes that Park have played all season.

East London began to tire, and Park’s ball carriers began to break tackles and make good ground. Cameron Petrie and captain Aidan Mersh ran tirelessly. Luke Izatt also showed his surprising turn of speed. Three times the Park pack ran the ball into the East London 22, and three times the Park backs scored. With every passing week Barney Savell looks more like a 10, and less like a renegade 9 camouflaged in a 10 shirt. He threaded some high precision passes through the East London defence for George Smith to score from a crash ball, and Jamie Harbour again from an overlap.

There was less than a minute on the clock when East London kicked off deep into the Park half, but Park made no mistakes, looked after the ball, and moved patiently up the pitch. A penalty gave us a line out in the East London 22. Wild celebrations followed when another crash ball put George Smith under the H for his second try, and poor George was smothered in black, white and purple shirts. Luckily he took no damage, and put the ball over for a memorable 38-36 win.

So the prayers of the faithful were answered, Park showed that they could match their car park, and quite rightly many beers were drunk. Spare a thought for our gallant opposition from East London, who deservedly led for most of the game. This is the second time this season that we have beaten them with a last minute try, but they hung around for a long while helping us drink the beer.

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