Clacton 2 v Aldeburgh

24th February – Clacton

Result: Clacton 38 Aldeburgh 21

A frustrating experience

A small band of Aldeburgh players made the journey to Clacton to ensure that the match was played so that we avoided losing five points by cancelling. We had been informed in advance by Clacton that they had a large squad because they wanted to give people a game. They sportingly provided loan players in accordance with the Game On principles to ensure an even encounter. However, we were also told that their First XV had completed its league fixtures for the season. Many of them were to play against us.

Despite the size of the Clacton pack, Aldeburgh pressed them back to start with. Ed Robson, fly half, kicked for position and then found a good touch from a penalty. His tactical kicking made an impact throughout the match. Less good was that hooker, Elliott Clarke-Gifford, pulled up with a hamstring strain from the kick off and five minutes later Dean Wilkins, in the back row this week, had to leave the field with a bad knee injury. To lose two strong players from a depleted starting XV was a blow.

Clacton soon built pressure with the breakthrough for a try coming after 7 minutes. Aldeburgh did respond with a loan player making a strong run, Ed chipping over the top and holding Clacton back on their line. It couldn’t last. The weight of Clacton’s scrum enabled them to push a set scrum over the line for the second try. 14-0 after a quarter of an hour with a mismatch in pack sizes looked ominous.

Apart from Aldeburgh’s brave tackling, what held Clacton back was the quality of their passing. Time and again they moved the ball slickly only to drop it at the crucial moment. As a result, there was stalemate right up to half time. Just before the break, the luck went with Clacton. From a line out, they moved the ball along the backs until Ben Watts, centre and skipper, so nearly made an interception. Instead, the Clacton fly half hacked on, picked up and scored. Nevertheless, 19-0 at half time was respectable.

Within a minute of the restart, Clacton had crossed again. Simple, direct rugby enabled them to keep going until Aldeburgh ran out of tacklers. The floodgates remained shut tight. There were no more scores for 20 minutes but injuries had by then left Aldeburgh a man short. Numbers were soon evened up when, for reasons which were not obvious from the touch line, a Clacton player was sent off. All we saw was a player tearing off his shirt, swearing loudly as he left the pitch with the referee brandishing a red card at his retreating back.

Most of the game was played in a good spirit with the only altercation being between Clacton players on opposing sides. ‘See you next Tuesday’ was clearly heard from the touchline. Training could be combative next week. Despite the red card, Clacton broke through almost immediately to score another try. 31-0 with twenty minutes left.

Surprisingly the next score went to Aldeburgh. The guys kept plugging at it. Sustained pressure led to a scrum in the Clacton 22. Scrum half, Fred Precious, was quickly round the blind side to charge down the clearing kick, following up to pick up and score. A couple of minutes later, he did it again when he took a quick penalty, outpaced the defence on the outside and scored in the corner. Ed Robson converted from the touchline to add to his previous conversion.

Clacton managed one more try before Aldeburgh finished the scoring. David Rix, having another excellent game as flanker, picked up from a ruck in his own half, broke free and ran deep into the opposition half. He linked with Fred Precious who looked for a moment as if he was going to get a hat trick but he fired the ball to Ben Watts whom it hit and bounced up but somehow he was able to grab it and touch down. Ed again converted.

What looked at one point like being a cricket score against us, turned into quite a tight game. All the players worked tremendously hard and were a credit to the club. We were left with the frustration of knowing that if we had played against Clacton’s regular second team we would have seen a different outcome.

Ipswich 3 v Aldeburgh

17th February – Ipswich

Result: Ipswich 0 Aldeburgh 114

A totally one-sided affair

Members of the Ipswich committee described their 3rd XV as a ‘social’ team. Before the kick off, they appeared to have more than the requisite number of props on the pitch. On the other hand, Aldeburgh are now able to field a squad of capable, highly competitive players. When the social met the competitive, there was no doubt about the result from the kick off.

Hooker Elliott Clarke-Gifford collected the kick well, charged at the opposition, linked with centres Ben Watts and Callum Goodwin who was dragged down just short of the line.

Aldeburgh gave away a couple of penalties, a continuing problem through the first half, before Clarke-Gifford picked up from a turned over ruck to start a mesmerising series of passes down the blind side, bringing the winger, Fred Precious, into play before new flanker, David Rix, touched down with his second touch in an Aldeburgh shirt. He is a useful acquisition.

After only six minutes, the pattern of the game became clear when Toby Mann, playing at No 8 this week, picked up from the base of a scrum on the 22 and simply ran straight through the Ipswich defence to score under the posts. Ed Robson kicked the first of twelve conversions.

The combination of powerful running from the forwards and devastating speed and passing in the backs tore Ipswich apart from beginning to the early end. Ipswich had a big pack but the set scrums were even – apart from the one which Ipswich won only to kick the ball back through to the Aldeburgh side where Toby picked up and scored another directly from the scrum. The line outs were a bit messy with Aldeburgh taking plenty of ball.

The third try was scored by Fred Precious having been put through by a lovely pass from full back Ramsey Bourke who himself got the seventh try when he outpaced the cover defence after a series of forward drives.

Ipswich could not deal with the speed of Aldeburgh’s defence so that when they got the ball but dropped it in the backs, Aldeburgh retrieved it, recycled it a couple of times and put Callum Goodwin over for the first of his three tries.

On 23 minutes, Toby Mann ran from the half way line straight through the middle of the Ipswich defence to score. It was 31-0. Aldeburgh appeared to be scoring at will. Ipswich heads were already dropping. Before the end of the half, Elliot Clarke-Gifford emulated Toby from even further away from the Ipswich try line but with the same result.

The backs were fully involved. A couple of long passes gave space to winger Adam Hateley to cross the line. After another smooth back move, the ball was recycled to the second row who passed to each other to create yet another try. 57-0 at half time.

The second half carried on in the same vein with tries by both centres. Adam Hateley made a tremendous run having fielded a deep kick. From the ruck, Peter Mann, prop, made a break, his brother Toby ran an excellent line to take the pass and break right through over the Ipswich line where he paused to pass the ball back to Peter to score. Sweet.

Peter got another try at the end of some excellent forward interpassing. The centres each scored again as did the other member of the second row, Dean Wilkins. The depths were reached by Ipswich when their fly half dropped a pass and stood there while Aldeburgh players picked it up, playing to the whistle, and eventually Fred Precious (playing at scrum half in the second period) danced his way around the defence to score.

Aldeburgh were keen to build up their points in case points difference was a deciding factor at the end of the season but all agreed to end the uneven contest after 30 minutes of the second half.

The result leaves Aldeburgh second in the table with three games in hand on Braintree 2. Halstead Templars are third. They are the teams who were relegated last season. We have to play both before the end of the season in what could be crucial matches.

Aldeburgh v Colchester 4

10th February – Queen’s Field

Result: Aldeburgh 64 Colchester 0

New players, similar dominant performance

Fielding several new players, Aldeburgh maintained their flowing style of rugby to record another big win in front of a large crowd of VPs, many of whom had just enjoyed a splendid lunch in the clubhouse. 

With many members of the squad unavailable each week for one reason or another, it has been a feature of the season that the club has continued to attract new players.  A core of regulars provide the stable base.  Regular props Peter Mann and Matt Elias anchored the scrum which was solid throughout the match.  The back line revolves around Ed Robson who showed his vision in the first couple of minutes with a long pass to create space resulting in new skipper Ben Watts scoring the first of his four tries.

Playing at centre, Ben scored his second after ten minutes, finishing off a good move in the backs.  His powerful running was a threat throughout the match which Colchester struggled to contain. 

The third try a few minutes later was driven in by the forwards with Matt Elias the scorer.  The remainder of the first half saw Aldeburgh increasingly in charge through their ability to move the ball swiftly, combined with powerful runs by both forwards and backs.  The fourth try typified this with a superb move in the backs linking to No 8 Charlie Blakeley who gave the final pass to Ben.  Charlie made several powerful runs during the game as did new hooker, Aaron Tuck, who made his presence felt in the loose.

On 28 minutes, the ball was again moved rapidly down the back line, brought back in then out again to create the overlap for new full back Ramsey Bourke to go over.  There was time for another sparkling back move to put Ben through for his fourth try of the half with enough space to run round under the posts before dotting down. 

38-0 at half time suggested that it could be a mammoth score but Colchester continued to resist stoutly to the final whistle, never letting the game get completely away from them.  Special mention must be made of Colchester’s prop who played the full match at the age of 76 (yes, that’s right, he is seventy six years old).  What an inspiration.

It took ten minutes of the second half before Aldeburgh could get another score.  From a quick penalty, Toby Mann, showing his versatility by playing at centre this week rather than his recent back row position, powered over.  Almost immediately, another stunning move in the backs saw Ben link with Ed Robson who put flanker Alex Cox in the clear with time for an extravagant swan dive. 

He got back to his feet all smiles but was smiling less broadly a few minutes later when Colchester took a quick penalty and Alex was unable to resist the urge to tackle the penalty taker before he had taken a couple of strides.  His yellow card was somewhat harsh but undoubtedly fair.  Despite being a man down, Aldeburgh got the next try.  Ed Robson began it by hacking on a loose ball, chasing 30 metres to tackle the full back who spilled the ball.  A covering player managed to get to the ball but somehow spilled it backwards over the line where Toby Mann dived to get his hand on the ball first. 

Colchester managed a period of pressure without seriously threatening to score but they did pin Aldeburgh back for large parts of the final quarter.  Nevertheless, the final score of the game was another scintillating Aldeburgh try with full back Ramsey Bourke making a superb run before linking with Toby Mann who gave Adam Hateley the chance to show his speed and strength. With Ed Robson contributing seven conversions, the score at the final whistle was 64-0.

Following the match the players enjoyed another of Paddy and Freddie’s delicious match teas and the chance to watch England beat Wales on the big screen.  Another splendid day at Aldeburgh Rugby Club.