SBOB vs Dings 1st March

The Dings squad arrived for this fixture unfortunately short of a man so this was a 12 a-side match played in mild weather at Coombe Dingle. From the kick off Dings moved the ball well through repeated phases of ruck and maul. Their fly half was very quick and looked to get their back line moving well. This was clearly a well drilled team. SBOB however were clearly up for this match from the start and were soon knocking Dings backwards largely through very aggressive tackling. Sam Dron, Callum, Ben, Ed and Joe Cooke put in numerous tackles that were clearly unnerving the Dings players. Dan, Henry, Michael and James Kloska mauled well and frequently managed to turn over ball. Although Dings seemed to have much of the ball they were forced back into their own half. The first try came as no surprise when Ben intercepted a pass and ran out wide to score in the corner. Joe Cooke converted. This clearly gave heart to the SBOB team who then set about dominating the remainder of the first half. Henry, Michael, Sam and Alex used their power and weight to good advantage driving straight at the Dings defence. There was some excellent ball carrying to be seen with the SBOB forwards getting their heads down and charging. James Nelson fed the backline with quick ball from the base of the scrum. Joe Cooke looked dangerous on the left wing throughout the first half with numerous darting runs and eventually ran in the 2nd try. This was followed shortly afterwards by Sam Dron (playing as centre) driving through a miss tackle and scrambling to the line for the third try. Joe Cooke showed his pace and side stepping skills to score his second try.

Unfortunately one of the Dings players injured his knee (ligament damage) in the first half so the contest was reduced to 11 a-side. Sam Davies was therefore asked to leave the pitch (much to his disappointment)

The second half was a much more tightly contested competition. Luke replaced James Nelson at scrum half and Ollie came on as replacement wing. Dings were clearly keen to make their presence felt and applied pressure from the restart. Their fly half was again prominent and moved Dings forward with her excellent running. Only good defensive work from SBOB kept Dings out. The SBOB scrum was clearly having difficulties and was often driven backwards even off their own ball. Luke played well around the fringes of the scrum and often managed to scrag his opposite number. Dings eventually managed to run in a try following a series of quick rucks. Dings however looked to be tiring as the game went into the final quarter. Sam Davies back on in the centre managed to break free in midfield and galloped at pace to the line to score SBOBs 5th try. This was followed closely by a great run from Alex through the centre of the Dings defence. He drove forward with 3 defenders holding onto him but still managed to make 20 yards. Fantastic run. Ben tried the same and managed to drive within a yard of the Dings line but unfortunately SBOB knocked on from the subsequent ruck.

This was a ruthless performance from SBOB who never took their foot off the gas despite being in a commanding lead. It was also impressive in terms of the aggressiveness of the tackling and was a marked improvement on the previous weeks start against Frampton Cotterrell. An excellent attitude from all. Well done.