A surprisingly rain free afternoon up at UCS fields for a friendly full of swings, roundabouts and even some windmills. UCS started the slower of the two teams conceding three quick tries, with little flashes of what they had to offer in between them. As is often the case we were our own worst enemies, little mistakes leading to big consequences. Despite the scoreline heads remained high, and several dominant scrums (the TT express was not stopping at any station on his way down to Finchley Road) and lineouts (air O’Farrell declaring a strict no fly zone) continued to lift the mood, The phases started to build and soon the pressure told with Silky skating in from 10 metres untouched. Sadly, this was not the start of the revival and the UCS old boys were soon pinned back on their own line, as the opposition’s quick hands and feet found a gap after waves of attack. The half ended soon after, as tiredness told and the game descended into some scrappy back and forth, balls to ground aplenty!

Half-time: UCS 5 - Verulamians 28.

The teams swapped places and the second half commenced, Harper’s anger at sport in general channeled effectively into a stirring team talk which appeared to have the desired effect. UCS started fired up and a big hit from the kick-off no doubt stoked the fire. A bit of kick tennis followed and neither team appeared to be able to string the phases together for long enough to make anything happen for a while. Fortunately for UCS, something clicked and the phases began to come together culminating in super-sub Rolles muscling over with many oppo admirers hanging off of his person. Sadly, his day did not last much longer and he departed the field sporting a leg knock and an impressive minutes to try ratio. Gideon joining the field on the wing in his place. Talking of departures, unfortunately soon after this the referee was forced to brandish his red card as a member of the opposition clearly took exception to O’Farrell’s face and attempted to rearrange it for him, a black mark on an otherwise competitive and good-spirited match. The game became a bit scrappy and mistakes were the order of the day, as both teams adjusted to the change up. It appeared UCS settled quickest, latching onto a mistake at a messy ruck resulting in Alex G shaking off the head rush at seeing so much space in front of him and tripping over his feet to score. Extras added, the score sat at 19-28. This slight UCS comeback steeled the opposition and their attack began to fire against a tiring UCS side who’s errors started to mount, scoring two tries before the half was up. Final result UCS 19 - Verulamians 40.

Man of the Match: Chris Silk, excellent in both attack and defence, often swinging the momentum with a big hit or well picked line.
Dick of the day: Rolles for taking his meat pie and then conserving his energy for the rest of the game on the bench
Jedi: Alex O’Farrell for his lineout shutdown, but mainly for his head movement, Mayweather would be proud.

Finally, a massive thank you to Verulamians for fulfilling this friendly fixture and the referee for also taking this match, so that we all could enjoy our Saturday and justify more pints watching the pros afterwards. We look forward to welcoming the same opposition next weekend, hoping to reverse our fortunes.

Tea Report
After our disappointing loss, thankfully Anne was able to provide us with another marvellous after match tea.

Lashings of tasty lasagne was gratefully devoured; a second helping was consumed with aplomb; Anne cooked so much, the washer uppers were able to take advantage of the leftovers. Anne also supplied a lovely vegetarian pasta bake for our non meat-eating brethren....barely touched but will be a welcome side dish for one night this week. 5 stars, Anne, obviously.,