Midlands Two North – Round 17 Saturday February 3
This weekend Arnold‘s Pavs travelled over to Sutton Coldfield RFU in round 17 of the competition. With injuries to hooker Owen Taylor and locks Aaron Langan and Ben Allen along with some unavailability, Pavs had to rearrange matters upfront calling up Tom Ryan for his first start and Alistair Plant in the row whilst slotting in Josh Alton-Smith into his former position at hooker. In the back line, Harry Kerr moved into the centre with Morgan Jones taking up a vacant position on the wing. Noah Bhatia was selected on the bench only to be unfortunately Injured in an academy game bringing Sam Green into the squad. With as many as 10 positional and player changes this was always going to be a big ask for the group as kick off approached.
Conditions prior to kick off were dry, but with a howling gale coming straight down the pitch. Pavs began brightly, but a good clearing kick, utilising this wind, from Sutton Coldfield sent Pavs back on to their 5 metre line for a 50/22 giving Sutton Coldfield the throw in. From the resulting forward drive and melee the home side piled over to take the lead on seven minutes at 5-0.
Pavs again looked good moving forward, before the same process repeated itself and Pavs found themselves 10-0 on fifteen minutes.
As Pavs sought to redress matters, centre Harry Kerr suffered a game ending hamstring injury which brought Jonty Green on at 9 with Ben Taylor moving to the wing and Morgan Jones back into the centre.
Finally, George Billam found his way through the Sutton Coldfield defence to record Pavs opening try and bring the score to 10-5. With the official failing to set any sort of offside line, Sutton Coldfield were able to stifle Pavs’ running game.
Unfortunately, a rather unsavoury incident occurred when wing Alex Rimmington was forced off with a head injury suffered following a clear head shot at a ruck. Most spectators felt that this should have been a clear straight red card, but characteristically was viewed only as a yellow card offence by the official. This then brought Sam Green in for his debut. With Pavs rather at sixes and sevens following two quick injuries, Sutton Coldfield gained momentum and scored two more tries before the break to bring the score to 24-5. A rather controversial and difficult half to negotiate given the manner of the officiating, Pavs began to find life tough.
After the break, Pavs made a bright start again, seeking to move the ball quickly and avoiding the collision area. Unfortunately, the first twenty minute period of the second half was reminiscent of the last twenty minutes of the first half. As Pavs forced the game in search of getting back on terms, a number of handling errors occurred which Sutton Coldfield used to extend their lead to 43-5 with fifteen minutes left. At this stage, Pavs began to find some space to score with Doug Billam and Ben Taylor crossing the line. Both tries were converted by George Billam to bring the score to 43-19. Pavs kept pressing forward, but another spilt ball allowed Sutton Coldfield to go the full length to score on the last play and to the end the game with an emphatic 50-19 score line.
A difficult and very disappointing day out for the boys. A somewhat chaotic week in selection for the coaches and injuries during the game exacerbated what were already challenging circumstances. All in all, just one of those days when the sun did not shine and the rainbows did not emerge. Pavs will linger momentarily to reflect on what they could have done better in the week ahead, but to use the soccer parlance “you don’t become a bad side over night.” After winning 9 of their last 12 games, they will this very much view this as a wake up call to get back to basics. They will also undoubtedly bounce back when they travel to West Bridgford on the 17th February for another entertaining local derby.
Starting XV: Tom Ryan, Josh Alton-Smith (VC), Jake Baldry, Alastair Plant, Theo Collier, Tom Gladwin, Josh Flanagan, Phil Eggleshaw, Ben Taylor (1 try), George Billam (1 try, 2 conv), Morgan Jones, Doug Billam (C, 1 try), Harry Kerr (inj 17 mins), Alex Rimmington (inj 27 mins), Matt Molyneux
Impacts: Jonty Green (17 mins), Sam Green (27 mins), Harry Pritchard (65 mins)
Paviors Rugby Club play at Burntstump Hill, Arnold, NG5 8PQ and the club runs over twenty teams.
New players are always welcome – girls, boys, men & women, there is a team for all.
Further information about the club including contact details can be found on http://www.paviorsrfc.co.uk/ .
