Herts/Middlesex One: London French 14 UCS Old Boys 19

UCS Old Boys defied a number of injuries throughout the match to beat London French 19-14 in Herts/Middlesex One.

Before the game, UCSOB were pleased to hear clubmate Dave Bromley was recovering well following a recent cardiac arrest.

A penalty given in the London French 22 between the posts was not taken as a goal-kick, but rather as a scrum because of the devastating Old Boys front row.

However, despite multifarious pack drives and attacks from the backs, the half bore no fruit, save for a disallowed held-up try when the marauding Tom Sanders rampaged over the line.

It was not until injury time in the forty-fifth minute of a half extended by injuries that the UCS scored a driving forward try.

Alex Henk, having replaced his injured brother Christian in the front row, crossed the line from a maul, with Tim Hyland converting.

After twelve minutes of the second half, a lineout ball in the London French 22 was won with a colossal leap from Liam Clarke.

This was followed by a mauling drive over the line by the dominant Old Boys pack, with hooker Alex Turton touching down for a try, later converted.

Nat Breakwell cleverly picked the ball from a collapsed ruck and broke well, dashing nine metres to score a try, though the extras were not added.

Throughout the game, Old Boys had suffered a series of injuries with the likes of Hyland, scrum half Arthur Coates and James Boxer among those to go off.

Nevertheless, Jack Boulden gave a so-very-sturdy relentless performance in the pack and David Barton added immense energy and verve.

Ahmad Ghanem at prop throughout the game, was crucial to our assertive forwards’ dominance in the scrum, maul and lineout. With UCSOB down to 14 men, French eventually scored a break-through try under the posts, which was converted and with five minutes to go another was scored, also converted.

What followed was a seemingly endless period of injury time, but UCSOB held on to triumph.