Exiles managed a draw in the second half of their game versus a competent Hampstead IIIs/IVs squad in the quagmire of the Ealing lower pitches, on a wet and wild Saturday.
Nick Greenhalgh reports.
Just a brief report this week, apologies, though I suspect many of you are breathing a sigh of relief.
Non league fixture this weekend saw us play a mixture of Hampstead IIIs and IVs. A well drilled set of boys who snook three tries against us in the opening minutes of the game before we started to wake up. Then when we woke up we still didn’t fare well. Simple errors were costing us many points. Missed tackles was the name of the game for great swathes of the match. At one point their large flanker caught the ball from a restart and managed to run through most our pack, a few backs and the fullback to dot the ball down in what for him must have been a most satisfying run out!
Second half though saw us more alert. We took much more of a grasp of the game. Ed Moores managed to bludgeon his way over the try line from a second phase move off a penalty five yards out of their line. Spike converted it nicely. Sadly those were our only points, but the oppo also only managed to match us that half so all in all, we can proudly say "we drew against them", then in a low volume after note whisper "in the second half".
Big thanks to Richard Mellia for coming in at last minute to fill in the propping void we seemed likely to have. Also nice to see Barry back on the pitch for a brief stint as prop. Barry has been suffering with a long running foot injury. Also thanks to Hampstead for venturing down to provide us a stiff competition.
The best part of the day was catching the all important 6 nations games with Guinness in hand, a game the Exiles played with finesse that Saturday afternoon.
Try:
Ed Moores
Con:
Spike
Team and rough positions played:
- Richard Mellia – 1
- Fabio Krasniqi – 15,2
- Warren Greef – 3,8
- Thomas Laishley – 5
- Anthony Lynch – 4
- Bradley Yates – 12
- Ciaran Doyle – 7
- Nick Greenhalgh – 8,15,13
- Stef McGabe – 9
- Mark Davies (Spike) – 10,15
- Ed Moores – 6
- Mark Rutherford – 11
- Alex Pigilly – 12
- Dave MacSweeney – 2,3
- Anthony Chapman – 5
- Barry Cousins – 3
- Neal Craig – 13,10
- Ghassan Matta – 1
- Nawab – 14
