Clifton well beaten by new boys

This was the first meeting between following the two clubs. following the Old Boys promotion from London One last season. They earned promotion following a 17-10 playoff victory over Redingensians.

The Old Boys are in the process of moving to a new ground at Eltham College and this season are playing at the attractive Barns Hospital ground. This brought back memories to our President John Raine who recalled playing against the Hospital side in the late sixties These were the days when Hospital rugby had higher profile than it does today. John believes Barts were holders of the Hospital Cup when we played them.

Travel to the ground proved to be difficult as there hold ups on the M4, M11 and M25 and in the end the coach quit the motorway and weaved its way through the south London suburbs to reach the ground an hour before kickoff. Raine and Vice President Ben Jordan stuck to the motorways and arrived after the game had started.

There was a familiar look to the Old Boys as their centre pairing consisted of James Golledge who played for the last few seasons before moving to London for work reasons and former Junior Kristian Cook who moved to Loughborough before going on to Cambridge to win a Blue.

We kicked off up the slope in conditions suitable for a high scoring game.

We started well and after seven minutes took the lead when scrum half Alex Haynes fed centre Dan Wells who passed on to looping fly half Luke Blizzard who touched down close to the posts and then added the extras.

Within the 2 minutes the Old Boys put themselves on the board when fly half Tom White landed penalty.

We were unlucky not to stretch our lead when home flanker made a break but passed to a Clifton back who was hauled down just short of the line.

White released his centre pairing and they gave winger Max O’Leary the opportunity to set up a ruck close to the line and scrum half Charlie Edwards dived over for a try converted by White.

At the end of the opening quarter we set up siege on the home line but were unable to force our way over from a succession of rucks.

Unfortunately with half time approaching we lost a scrum against the head on our owe line and as we were shunted over the line Edwards touched down for his second try which White converted.. He also converted a try scored by Cullen just before the break.

White added a penalty at the start of the second half to extend the lead to 27-7.

We were a long way adrift but managed to keep the Old Boys under pressure who conceded a string of penalties out of kicking range. We kicked to the corner but were unable to force our way over from catch and drives.

We went further behind when we were penalised for not straight at a line out and Edwards took play to the line and O’Leary went over for the bonus point which was converted.

Haynes replied for us going over wide out but the Blizzard hit the upright and bounced clear.

O’Leary scored the final try when he fielded a cross kick from White despite the close attention of a defender.

This game marked the half way point of the season though we have we have a game in hand with Lydney.

After the game I spoke to members of the club who in their playing days had contact with Peter Collett, Mike Mason and John Roberts.