Teddington cruise past The Midwives

In the most part it was a fantastic weekend for Antlers rugby and a fantastic weekend for rugby in general. It all started on Friday evening at the club with our very first 6 Nations Gala Dinner. It was a great night, topped off by our honoured guest Conor O’Shea the Quins DoR giving us all some great insights into his life of rugby, as a player, coach, pundit and fan. This certainly whet our 6 Nations appetites for the day ahead.

The 1st XV game kicked off a little late as our Polish exchange referee, who had flown in for the fixture forgot to dig OMW out of their warm changing room in time for kick off. They waited for the knock that never came and we all kicked our heels and looked at our watches, worrying that we might miss the start of the final 6 Nations game on the TV.

Eventually we got going and in a game closely mirroring the 6 Nations spectaculars playing out on the TV the boys served up a real treat for the gathered faithful. After a decidedly hot and cold first 20 minutes during which time we first conceded a soft try after a mis-kicked clearance, followed by captain Stu Ridler shearing off a driving maul to dive over, followed by another soft try after a lineout overthrow. Anyway we finally knuckled down and pulled ourselves together just before the break.

The second half it was one way traffic, for the first 30 minutes at least. The team with our stand in half backs of Josh Penberthy at 9 and Chris Dickson at 10 started to control both territory and possession and the team in general started to put some intensity into our efforts. We were rewarded by some fine tries as a consequence. In a 20 minute burst Jules Richardson, Big Ferg, Stu Ridler and Chris Dickson all crossed the white wash and we were out of sight. Some stern defending for the last 10 minutes repelled all efforts by OMW to close the scoreline and meant that they didn’t score a single point in the second half. It was great to have Sharpy back in the squad and in general the back row featuring Sharpy, Stu Ridler, Seb Woods & Josh Stevens were outstanding.

This was another magnificent team win, which is the 5th in 6 games and has guaranteed us London league rugby for next season. It has also pushed us up to 7th in the league. We are now the joint highest bonus point winners along with league leaders Andover and with two games still to play we are setting our sights on moving even further up the table.

After the game we all dashed back into the clubhouse to watch Englands valliant attempt to not only beat France but also to overhaul Ireland. So near and yet so far for Chris Robshaws men, but what a day of rugby!!!!

This coming Saturday is our final coach road trip of the season, this time to improving Trojans who have their backs against the wall as they desperately fight to avoid two relegations in a row. We’ll need another committed performance this weekend if we want the winning streak to continue.