Lymington v Locksheath Pumas – Match Report

Injury to referee forces replay

 Lymington Mariners 10 – 7 Locksheath Pumas

Writing a match report was not as easy a task as usual as playing with a lower number on my back meant I spent most of the game with my head between Anthony’s and Callum’s arses.

In any case the first 15 minutes of this week’s game were a spectacle of fluid aggressive and penetrating rugby – all by the Mariners. Led for the first time by stand-in skipper Nick Bubb, Lymington, from the whistle ran the ball into the Puma’s half and pitched their tents. Within 5 minutes, as instructed by coach Allen, Mariners had scored. I didn’t see all of it as I was in a ruck but the ball came out, Joe Winterton or Etheridge or someone gave the ball to Jamie Banasik who jinked into Mariners’ corner to break his season’s duck. Lymington continued to pound the opposition lines with powerful runs, particularly from Steve O’Callaghan who, like a ten-pin bowling ball, left flailing defenders scattered in his trail. The forwards rucked with ferocious impact whilst young scrum-half Max Williams set free the backs giving maestro Chris Scott-Bowden the time to weave his magic. It was all looking so good and Locksheath were certainly rattled by the onslaught they were under. Then whilst 5 metres from the Puma line and the tempo being completely set by the beat of Mariner drums the referee went and injured himself.

15 minutes later the match restarted albeit now a ‘friendly’ with one of the travelling Puma entourage taking hold of the whistle. The game although played still at a high tempo never regained it’s intensity. It was a time to put in some useful full team practice so calls were made, moves attempted and decisions altered to reflect the lack of stake in the result. No doubting too that despite the best efforts of the stand-in referee, not helped by a lot of unnecessary moaning by both sides, the course of history was going to be rewritten and the true outcome of the days match was never going to be known. Saying that Lymington won and definitely deserved the day’s honours.

However it certainly wasn’t the end of some entertaining rugby. Soon after the restart another fine piece of handling deep down in Mariners’ corner, including a nifty tap pass from Chris, put Mark Etheridge through. Not content with just crossing the try line Mark decided to go for glory and run it under the posts -  only to be tackled into touch before grounding the ball. Were the game still in league mode I’m not sure the shame would ever be forgotten.

Fortunately Lymington and Jamie Banasik weren’t finished with Mariner’s Corner yet and some more sublime handling meant the whitewash was again crossed, this time Jamie making sure there were no problems with the grounding. Jamie was now two tries to the good but I’m fairly certain as the game was now a friendly that they don’t really count. With the conversion missed the score was 10-0.

In the dying minutes of the first half Tim ‘I didn’t do anything’ Hinman upset one of the opposition whilst using his knee in an attempt to aid the stand-in referee with managing the off-side line. Tim tried in vain to make himself small but was still lucky enough to receive several quick blows to the face for his sporting gesture. Florence West has been instructed to ensure that for all future matches there is a steady supply of Tim’s medication in the first aid kit.

In the second half Lymington were up the hill and this gave Locksheath more opportunity to exert some pressure on the home team’s line. Although not quite as dominant as last time these two teams met the Puma’s still had the edge over Lymington in the set piece and they used this to make steady progress down field. Fortunately all 18 Mariners that took to the field defended like titans. The back line was continually up on their opposite number giving them no time to create anything and forcing turn-overs. Craig Esterhuizen at full back showed again why he’s the most reliable no.15 in the club – I don’t think he made a mistake all day and completely nullified their kicking game as a threat. Jamie Bolwell and Freddie Parker on the wings made accomplished come-backs from injury showing us all, with some penetrating runs and fierce tackles, why they’d been missed so much.

Mark Etheridge’s day didn’t get any better when, whilst making an excellent tackle on his opposite number, took a knock to the head and left for an early shower and a trip to casualty.

Eventually Pumas made the break-through from a quickly taken long line-out to their centre crashing through the middle of the park at full charge. The conversion was scored and with it the last points of the match.

Lymington continued to push hard and Steve O’Callaghan crashing through from a tapped penalty crossed the line but was unable to get the ball to turf. In the final quarter of the match both teams had chances for a decisive score but some lung-busting efforts to make critical tackles prevented either side making them count.

With a minute to go some idiot from Locksheath decided to see if he could put Freddie Parker back on the injury list with a sneaky kick to the back of the head. This led to a few handbags being swung and the referee finally conceded it was probably best if everyone grabbed a shower and pint. The fixture will be replayed later in the season and on this evidence promises to be another spectacle of rugby at Woodside’s field of dreams.

This week’s Lymington Rivaaz  Man of the Match award goes to Steve O’Callaghan – not only did he have every right to not even turn up he did so in spades. A powerhouse both offensively and in defence he owned every patch of grass he trod on. One particularly aggressive steal of the ball off the Puma’s charging prop will stay in the memory banks for some time.

Despite every effort to hoodwink some of the 2^nd team travellers with nothing but lies I can assure you all that the world is still spinning, taxes are still being paid, death will eventually reach us all and Dom Ellis didn’t even come close to scoring.