Old Grammarians 30 Fullerians 21

You won’t see many more exiting games of rugby than this, keenly contested upfront (until uncontested scrums took over mid second-half) and two free-running sets of backs always testing defences to the limits. Merit Table leaders

Fullerians might well have been expecting a stroll in the park, but they came second by a distance that could have been greater but for three careless tries gifted by benevolent, leisurely confident hosts. It all added to the excitement, which meant that Grammarians twice had to come from arrears to keep their noses in front until increasingly fractious Fullerians were well beaten in the end.

As statements of intent go, Grammarians opening declaration of a try in 55 seconds spoke volumes as lock Andy Buckley won the ball from the kick-off, fed centre “Drogba” Olaseni who made a quick 25 yards before timing a perfect pass to centre partner Elliott Culley for a 40-yard untouched sprint to the line. Tom Bolt’s conversion attempt failed to make it a 100% dream start.

OGs tails were up, Fullerians hackles were up, and it all made for an absorbing first quarter of end to end action, culminating in an outstanding try: Grammarians won their own throw at a line-out on their 22 and had the brio to run it through half-backs and centres to right-wing Saud Fattah who beat the cover to the corner for a try that would have had half-a-dozen re-runs on telly. So too Bolt’s conversion kick which fell from height to bounce on the crossbar and fall on the wrong side.

Grammarians were still on cloud euphoria at the restart as Fullerians waltzed through for a soft try under the posts. Five minutes later and Fullerians were 10-14 ahead as, from an innocuous situation, a kick-ahead, lucky bounce, and another try under the posts.

It was time, as Corporal Jones would say, not to panic, and a big wind-assisted kick from 22 to 22 by fly-half Bolt steadied nerves, and ruck-ball from the forwards reached Olaseni who’s grubber wouldn’t sit up for him before going dead. But Grammarians were not about to give ground and they messed up a
5-metre scrum for flanker Chris Stopien to pounce for a try, and a Bolt conversion to re-establish the lead at 17-14.

Next, and you could have written the script, straight from the restart a charged-down clearance was gathered and run in under the posts to lose the hard-won lead, now 17-21.

The all-action last ten minutes of the half was still not done and, with two minutes to go, Gs won one against the head 15-metres from the Fullerian line, then quick hands through the half-backs for Culley to knife through for his second try to re-establish a lead for a second time and, with Grammarians not

doing anything sloppy from the restart, a touch brought an end to a pulsating first half at 22-21.

There was no slacking of tempo in the second half as play ebbed and flowed end to end. Culley, now at full-back in the half-time subbings and shufflings, still sparkled with a high take on his own line and elusive run beyond the 22 before putting in a big kick to take play to the other 22. This set up a prolonged ( 2 or 3 minutes in this game was prolonged!) period of pressure in and around the Fullerian 22 but with nothing to show for it. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Fullerians broke dangerously out of defence, but Grammarians’ tackling was up to scratch and, aided by a penalty for crossing, were soon back at the other end.

The sensible option of a scrum – now uncontested as Fullerians couldn’t replace an injured prop – for a penalty just 10-metres from the line resulted in an over-eager and uncharacteristic knock-on in the backs when a 7-pointer looked odds-on. Undeterred, the forwards followed with a line-out rumble, prop Chris Stockman biding his time at the base to peel off on a 10-metre charge for the line. Bolt was unable to add conversion points but, with Grammarians now
asking most of the questions, the six-point margin at 27-21, and inside the final ten minutes, was beginning to look healthy.

OGs were straight back applying pressure from the restart, and rattled Fullerians shipped a penalty on the 22. Dissent cost them another 10-metres, at which point a stream of inventive invective directed at the referee meant that Fullerians would play the last eight minutes a man short. Maybe the drama was all too much for Bolt but he missed the relatively straight-forward penalty, only to atone six minutes later with a more difficult three points to seal an outstanding team performance for the Seconds’ best win so far this season.

Team performance though it was, Culley’s stand-out display was accorded the man-of-the-match laurels.