Band of Brothers Click

Band of Brothers Click

Upper Clapton travelled to Pegasus Palmerians on Saturday and competed in a game of two contrasting styles. The East Essex side were heavy and experienced, whilst the Epping based team were agile and youthful. This resulted in Pegasus taking a direct approach to the game, using their forwards as battering rams, hitting them up time after time throughout the whole game. Upper Clapton looked to keep this attack at bay through hard tackling and exploit their opponents around the fringes of the breakdown, as well as looking to take them on out wide. The entire game was a battle royal from start to finish, and the Clapton team played like a band of brothers
UCFC opened the scoring when full-back Tom Roberts gathered a deep kick and ran it back at the home team, beating two chasers in the process, it’s great to see Roberts returning to his commanding best. He then linked up with electric winger John Gunnal who beat his opposite man with ease and cut back inside, feeding centre Adam Prince. Prince drew the final defender following some excellent footwork and fed Jamie Ilic who finished off a great team counter attacking play. Ross Stalley made the conversion from out wide look easy.
Two minutes later UCFC were awarded a penalty n the half way line when the Pegasus forwards were deemed to have entered a ruck from the side. The confident sharp shooter Ross Stalley stepped up and struck the ball sweetly through the posts to put the visitors 10 points up with ten minutes played.
Pegasus responded quickly though when UCFC failed to clear their lines, fumbling the ball 5 meters out. A steady scrum gave the home side an opportunity to use the blind side and cut back across the drifting defence to score in the corner. The Fobbing based team now had the momentum, and when an Upper Clapton kick failed to find touch the Palmerians ran the ball back and found a gap between the chasing defence to run in under the posts. The would be try scorer took his time to place the ball down, and in doing so offended Adam Prince who was chasing back hard. Prince attempted to kick the ball out of the hands of the attacker as he applied pressure to the grounding. This provoked a dispute and resulted in centre Prince receiving a red card and full-back Roberts a yellow, Clapton down to 13 men and the score 12-10 to the home side at half time.
The break allowed the Upper Clapton management team to come up with a contingency plan to play effectively with 13 men; some might say this was the work of a genius. Others would say the Prince sending off galvanised the team With a change of personnel in contrasting positions Clapton came out charged up and ready to play and within 5 minutes of the restart prop Clinton Dorling was scoring yet another of his spectacular tries from over 30 meters out, handing off and sprinting past two centres to cross the line and restore the visitors lead. Stalley of course converted.
UCFC defended tremendously for the remainder of the sin-bin and saw Roberts return to the field without having conceding a point whilst down to 13 men. They rolled up their sleeves, and particular individuals such as Dean McFarlane and Nicky Trevellion tackled everything that moved. So much so that they combined to make an almighty hit which dislodged the ball from a Pegasus attack and allowed Brett Ross to be put free down the left wing and outpace the opposition. McFarlane supported and was on hand to receive a flat ball from Hack and he smashed through the two would be defenders to score a memorable try.
The visitors knew that their work was not done and following his return to the field, Roberts made a great try saving tackle on his own 22 meter line. He was then supported at the breakdown by second row Richard Jones who turned the ball over. Scrum half James hack noticed that the home team were out of position and he made a break following the turn over and sprinted 60 meters before offloading to Mike Tindall who finished the attack out wide, taking Upper Clapton to 29 points and securing the 4 try bonus point – Stalley converted!
Pegasus responded immediately though when UCFC were stripped of the ball in contact after receiving the restart. The ball was passed to the powerful centre who scored under the posts, bringing the home team back into contention.
The home team knew that time was running out and with 5 minutes on the watch remaining and being 12 points down they launched a strong attack. Wave after wave was launched against the 14 defenders, and finally after 16 phases, Pegasus rumbled across the try line and scored under the posts. They converted and the score was 24-29 with two minutes remaining. When the restart from Stalley went out on the full, Pegasus thought they were in with a chance of stealing victory and they took Upper Clapton to within a meter of the line before captain Lee Garwood put his body on the line to defend the white wash and held up the attack. The referee looked at his watch and concluded the epic encounter.
Upper Clapton came out with the win and a bonus point despite being down to 13 men at times of the match. The players should take great heart and encouragement from this performance. The management were particularly proud of all the players.
Clapton take on Old Coopers at Upland Road next Saturday for what promises to be another game of attrition. A large crowd is expected as a memorial lunch is being held prior to the game to honour the club stalwart that was David Miller
1. Clinton Dorling 2. Pablo Beccera 3. Nicholas Trevellion 4. Richard Jones 5. Dean McFarlane 6. Guy Prince 7. Lee Garwood 8. Laurie Dobbin 9. James Hack 10. Ross Stalley 11. Jamie Ilic 12. Mike Tindall 13. Adam Prince 14. John Gunall 15. Tom Roberts 16. Lewis Tillet 17. Brett Ross 18. Liam Rogers