A stellar opening weekend for the Senior 22/23 Season
Chess Valley 7 - 8 Verulamians 1st XV
After a great preseason which saw the Vee’s grow in numbers and set a great foundation for the 22/23 season it came to match day 1 where we made the short trip down the M25 to play Chess Valley.
Sporting a newly designed kit kindly sponsored by Omni Financial Limited the boys looked ready to hit the ground running and after a minutes applause for one of Chess Valley’s founders the match kicked off.
Both teams were a bit unnerved in the opening exchanges as handling errors were shared as each team tried to establish the upper hand. After a few kick exchanges debutant winger Alfie Rowlands made a break into Chess Valley’s 22 beating a few defenders only to be brought down by a sublime tap tackle much to the dismay of the travelling fans. Nevertheless a penalty was won from the following ruck and the ever reliable Gareth Waters calmly slotted a penalty to put Vee’s ahead.
The following 20 minutes was a tough arm wrestle where both teams were forced to use their line out to establish an attacking platform due to the ever growing penalty count. Chess Valley off the back of some good kicks by their slick fly half managed to apply some pressure close to the Vee’s line but the blue and yellow wall held tight and kept them scoreless up until 2 minutes before half time where our number eight Hugo Robinson unfortunately came off second best in a tackle leading to being stretchered off the pitch. All the best with recovery Hugo!
After a brief intermission the second half kicked off and Vee’s looked to gain momentum with the score still being worryingly close despite our first half efforts. After a period of phases and scrums the blue and yellow army slowly marched down towards Chess Valley’s line. After knocking on the door for a period of 5 minutes or so, the bulldozing Josh Lawrence dived over close to the line to get a crucial try and hopefully take this game away from the hosts.
However, after a few costly penalties against the Vee’s two yellows were given which forced our defence to step up a gear and defend ferociously on our line despite Chess Valley’s repeated pressure. After some good close quarters phase work by the Chess pack they managed to drive over and bring the scores to 7-8.
With what felt like the longest 5 minutes ever, the Vee’s managed to mount more pressure on Chess in what looked to be another certain try but much to the delight of the nervous onlooking fans the full time whistle came first leaving Vee’s with their first win of the season!
A big shoutout to our Vee of the match Alfie Rowlands which played with great confidence in his senior debut! And another shoutout to the entire team who after all their hard work in preseason have reaped the rewards of a great first win of the season!
Verulamians 2nd XV 34 - 19 Cuffley
After a couple of years in hibernation, Vees 2nd team re-appeared, led by Jimmy Ryan, with some old and many new faces to play Cuffley at Cotlandswick. The visitors started strongly and with a large and technically proficient pack, which led to them dominating the scrums and close quarter exchanges and pushing Vees smaller pack backwards. This led to space opening for their pacy fullback who jinked his way superbly through the defence to score a converted try.
Vee’s remained focused and realised that opportunities would come if the game was fast and loose, to benefit their more mobile pack. After a series of quick rucks new recruit and stand in prop Kristie Glennon barged his way over for a try that demonstrated his strength and ball carrying in open play, seen on many a Tuesday night at training.
Cuffley got back on top with a number of energy sapping scrums and extended their lead with another converted try. Vee’s have restored links with the Royal Vet College and it was one of their players, Lewis Wosnitzka who got Vee’s back in the game. His opposite centre found him a handful all game and Wosnitzka broke through to force his way over.
Vee’s tails were up and dynamic defence and a willingness to tap and go from penalties proved decisive as Chris Jux forced his way over in the corner. Vee’s turned around 15-14 ahead with the wind and slope in their favour in 2nd half. The visitors had reorganised and again played to their strength in the pack, forcing errors, one being a miscued kick straight to Cuffley 10 who coasted over. Ryan started to find his range with the boot and Charlie Ricketts and new 2nd row Dwayne Rose started to dominate proceedings at the line out.
In the last 15 minutes, Vee’s superior fitness proved decisive with further scores from Wosnitzka, Glennon and powerful new centre Travis Fisher who finished off a break and sublime offload from evergreen Darren Westhead. Final score 34-19 to Vee’s!
It feels wrong not to mention the entire squad for a fantastic performance of patience, guts and a good deal of flair in the face of adversity. But the whole team were left in no doubt by the good crowd that witnessed the game, they had done themselves proud.
Special mention to Omar Ramdani, Tom Golding and Jim Turner who kept the front row battle competitive and Ben Moralee, the elder statesman who was moved to 9 only 10 mins before kick off, and who marshalled his pack and kept the game at the speed Vees needed. With all 16 squad players in contention, Capt Ryan gave the man of the match performance to Royal Vet College’s Lewis Oakey. He carried with gusto, defended with controlled aggression and covered every blade of the pitch. Congratulations to the whole squad and here’s to more of the same.
