Sat 31 Aug 2019, 14:00
Abbey vs Thatcham – pre-season 31.08.19
Abbey won their final pre-season game in a convincing 42-19 over Thatcham Rugby Club to make it two out of three wins to wrap up a successful summer of hard work and fun. There was an air of anticipation before the game, with neither side sure of what to expect; Thatcham will play in the southern equivalent of Abbey’s Wadworth 6X Southern Counties North division this year, having finished third in the same division last season. Abbey were coming into their third and final preseason game with hope to pick up some momentum to improve on their 7th place finish last year, two points off 6th.
Abbey kicked off with the wind behind them in overcast conditions and through good tactical awareness and kicking by the half backs Will Bevan and Charlie Shackleford kept the visitors pinned in their own half. Abbey attacked for the first five minutes but sloppy handling allowed Thatcham to break. Despite the best covering efforts of Dan Norville on the wing and Captain Bevan sweeping Thatcham executed a huge overlap in the wake of a big line-break from their own half to score in the corner. The score remained 0-5 as the conversion was lost in the wind. However, Abbey displayed fantastic resilience to keep pushing forward, and instantly reapplied the pressure with tireless blitz defence to regain possession deep into the Thatcham half. This pressure was finally rewarded after 15 minutes when Kieran Sweeney, one of many new players to impress this preseason, carried from the base of the ruck over the line to score – the picking and going drills paid off!
Sweeney’s try signalled an increase in intensity for the home side, as the kick off was taken and returned back into the Thatcham 22 via a brilliant kick. Following a few more minutes of territorial pressure and beautiful tip-ons straight from the training ground by Toby Staker and Maurice O’Connell front row Jack Brown burst through a gap on the left wing and audaciously stepped inside two covering Thatcham players to finish under the posts and give Shackleford another easy conversion meaning the score was 14-5 to Abbey after the first 20 minutes. Abbey maintained their relentless defensive pressure through the drinks break to earn another penalty following a skilful turnover from Adam Postlethwaite; a number of carries took Abbey to the 5m line when Bevan drew in multiple players to open up space for half-back partner Shackleford to dawdle over the line and give himself another simple conversion. From the resulting kick off Thatcham looked to exert some pressure of their own, but Abbey remained focus to steal an attacking line out and advance up the pitch. Using attacking structures put in place over weeks of training Gerrie Sutherland ran one of his many great lines off the first receiver and beat two helpless defenders to score and finish the half with a flourish, with the scores 28-5 to the home side at the break. Despite the early runaway try Abbey defended energetically, causing chaos amongst Thatcham’s attacks and attacked with composure, using patterns straight off the training ground.
Such energetic defending had its effect on the following 20 minutes, as both sides struggled to make any break of note. As a result, the teams turned to territorial kicking to gain an advantage but again Thatcham struggled, with Connor Limbrick fielding and countering their kicks well, alongside Alex Langford Pollard and Dan Norville. The only moment of note in this quarter was a superb piece of individual skill by the Thatcham left-wing, who recovered a disrupted backs move to step his way through several Abbey players and score under the posts to make the score 28-12.
Play resumed after another drinks break on the hour mark and Abbey, with 10 substitutions looked to capitalise with their fitness. A sustained period of Thatcham possession in the middle of the park was stopped abruptly by a big hit from Langford-Pollard coming in off his wing to show that bulking works. From the ensuing scrum Shackleford improvised a chip through well and the ball fell kindly to debutant forward Tom Wilkinson who charged through to make 30 metres of ground; he kept his composure amongst Thatcham’s scramble defence to offload to his support, after a few more offloads, with Abbey displaying great skill to keep the ball alive Langford-Pollard was rewarded for his earlier big hit to score under the posts to round off a superb counter-attack reminiscent of the French. With the score at 35-12 Abbey began to play freely, with Shackleford grubbering through and Limbrick dribbling his way to the line to finish well and cap off a fine defensive performance. Shackleford added the extras to finish his day with a 100% kicking record, despite the wind and sporadic rain. In a day of few defensive negatives, Abbey will perhaps be frustrated that they failed to close out the game effectively as Thatcham picked up a consolation try with a simple yet well-executed backs move. Nonetheless, it was an extremely impressive end to preseason with a comprehensive victory, fitting for the effort put in throughout the summer, the blitz defence was extremely effective and with a bit more work on spreading out from the break down and making sure that every player is always busy, Abbey will undoubtedly be the best defensive team in the division. The line up can be found here
Many thanks to Luke and Luffy for organising a great preseason, all 3 teams will be in action on Saturday 14th September, with the 1sts and 3rds playing away and the 2nds at home.
Wiitten by Thomas Jeffreys.
