Saxons Smash Vase-yans

After the 1st XV's triumph under Friday night lights at old Covs, Saxons were back to supply the action at Copt Heath. With Gaz Rock’s men looking to continue the Club’s winning ways against a young Veseyans side. Veseyans kicked off and Sils worked through the phases to go just outside the 22, a quick break from Henry set up a Saxons ruck on the Veseyans 5m line. A good pass from Andy ‘AR’ Richmond found Josh Ackrill out on the wing(?), with the big man crashing over to give Saxons the first score.
Veseyans responded well to this early score with a monster kick down field that went into touch midway into the Saxons 22. The resulting line out was given as not straight (Fake News). The ensuing scrum was a good platform for Vs as they shipped it wide and scored via a big miss-pass. Saxons were in for a game with the score at 5-7.

“Don’t worry boys, you’ve got a really fast 9, who can take some inside shoulders, and we’ll get right back in this”. This pep talk from Steve, was rendered somewhat disheartening moments later, by the sight of Andy ‘The Body’ Thompson being carried off the pitch like an injured Roman Emperor, on the shoulders of Clutz and Mike Rayner. It was at this moment that Jim Roper peeled away his tracksuit, to stroll on the field and deliver a masterclass in harassment of the opposition 9.

Veseyans next move was to send a big kick deep to Dom Marks and Brian Muriithi in the back three, they combined beautifully to scythe through the opposition midfield, for Brian to dot down in the corner. From here Saxons really turned on the champagne rugby, with Josh Mallet taking a quick penalty to combine with Brian and Dom once again, this time for Dom to score in the corner.

Determined not to let the backs do all the running, Steve ‘Mitch’ Mitchall broke the line to go within 5ms, a quick Pop to AR ensured Saxons continued to build their lead with another score. Conversions have been rarer than front row for the Saxons, so it was pleasing to see AR convert his own try to bring the score to 22 -7. Saxons put the icing on the cake just before halftime with Mallett capitalising on a messy Saxons lineout to run under the posts, pirouette, spin, dance and eventually fall over the whitewash to give the Saxons a 29- 7 lead at halftime.

Saxons came out for the second half to a reduced crowd, due to the lure of the new mega screen and a soggy Twickenham. The Saxons scrum was soon under pressure in the second half being repeatedly shoved backwards. However, good hooking combined with some fast picking from Mike Gowen allowed him to break around the corner of the scrum to score Saxons 6th try. At the 55 minute mark Veseyans put together some good phases to put the Saxons under pressure. But this week there was no melt down, no squabbling. This allowed Sils to keep Veseyans out, until the ball could once more be shipped to Brian who scored in the corner.

Saxons looked to be certain to add an 8th,as Gowen once again charged down the pitch from the halfway line. However, his attempt to step the last man failed and a quick pop behind to AR led to a knock-on. Veseyans then ground out a scrum penalty after a series of reset scrums, the resulting line out was knocked on and Sils Saxons rounded out the second forty point win of the weekend.

FT 41-7

by Henry Morris

MoM – Joe Bullock, 140 mins across 2 teams, outstanding performance. Honourable mentions - Brian and Dom
DoD – England Schedulers