REPORT: Ealing Exiles 10 – 48 Old Isleworthonians IIs

Bad day at the office for the Exiles down in Isleworth.  Skipper Stef McCabe reports on the proceedings.

The Exiles started the game with 14 players. Got a good forwards try from a rolling mall, the pack rumbled up from the 22 and Fabio broke away and dotted down.

Went up to 15 players when Neal and Julian turned up 10 minutes in.

We received a penalty for some opposition players getting feisty which I believe Fabio was also involved in. I tapped the ball, passed it to a fired up Fabio who ran straight into a stiff opposition shoulder which put Fabio on his rear.  Unfortunately the ref had not said time on when I tapped the ball. When the ref turned to see what was happening, the first thing he saw was Fabio on his back and kick towards one of the opposition players. So the ref gave Fabio a red card. After the match in the bar when we questioned the ref about it he stood by his decision and said it was justified. In my eyes a red card was very harsh, perhaps a yellow would have done. In fairness to Fabio he was quite calm about it, spoke to the ref after the match and even apologised to me for the incident.

Dyll moved into hooker.

Marc Hubbard took a knock to his shoulder and had to go off.  Neal came on the field and moved into the backs while Jareth moved from wing into the back row.

The second half saw a nasty incident when the opposition put a ball in the sky which Alun ran on to and took magnificently around his knees. Unfortunately when Alun was in a low position an opposition player went flying past with his arm out wide which solidly connected directly with Alun’s nose. It didn’t look pretty. Alun went straight off to hospital.

With two players down, one of the few decent tempered opposition players who was on their bench said he would have a run for us. He popped into the back row and Jareth ventured back to take Alun’s place at fullback.

Jareth at some point got a punch or a stiff arm across the face. Credit to him though for not lashing out and keeping calm.

We received another penalty for a high tackle which Neal fairly enough took offence to but that triggered off tempers and had players walking around like pigeons with there chests and squawking at each other. The ref intervened and had words to both sides.

After telling everyone to call it down, no back chat, not to get involved, keep calm and carry on, a conversation began between Dave Morgan and the opposition number 10. It ended up getting quite heated between both players and by this time the ref and a lot of others, myself included were tired of it. The ref gave both of these players a yellow card.

All in all it was not an enjoyable day of rugby with our lack of numbers, our discipline problems mixed with the mouthy and unlawfully aggressive nature of some opposition players. The rugby itself though, our forwards were quite good on attack at points but the same old defensive story where they all hide behind the ruck and don’t spread out to form a defensive line, as such the opposition backs always had an overlap. Our backs put about two good passages of play together with the ball going through the hands and making good ground. Clive done well as always at running up a crash ball.  Jareth also got a good work out in the backs due to the super hoof of the opposition no.10. In total I think we played about 20 minutes of good rugby.

The final score for the record was 48 to 10. Our ten points is dubious as I only recall Fabio’s try. The ref was adamant we got one in the early 2nd half though. I thought he might have marked Dyll down for a try after he crossed the line – only to find out the touch judge (Phil Jones) said the ball was out before Dyll received the offload.

Tries:

  • Fabio (1)
  • Dyll (1?)

Team:

1       Steve Richards
2       Fabio Krasniqi
3       Ray Dennis
4       Marc Hubbard
5       Anthony Chapman
6       Dyll Davies
7       Jonathan McKeogh
8       Julian Sweeny
9       Stefan McCabe
10      James Hitchcock
11      Greg Holdsworth
12      David Morgan
13      Clive Lungley
14      Jareth Keenan
14      Neal Craig
15      Alun Simpson