Oxford Harlequins IV 8 vs Reading Rhinos 8

They say that the sign of true champions is how they react in adversity. Well the Rhinos showed their credentials at a wet and muddy Oxford on Saturday. A combination of unavailabilities and injuries, left Captain Sharp with a bare fifteen players for the fixture, but to a man they all stepped up to the challenge, laying their bodies on the line for the cause and indeed two, Scott Stevens (Rib) and Diego Barrow (Shoulder/Neck), defied medical advice to play through the pain barrier.

From the start, the Rhino pack dominated the scrums, with the match official penalising their opponents at the first three set plays. However, it took until the midpoint of the half for the Rhinos to open the scoring, with full back Nick Robins-Cherry latching on to a miss-pass to score from ten metres. A moment of madness from prop/second row Stevens, saw the big Aussie yellow carded for illegally stopping the home side’s scrum half from playing the ball at a ruck. Fortunately for Stevens his team mates restricted their hosts to a single penalty during his absence. To make matters worse for Stevens, when he was finally allowed back to return, he had to trudge to the opposite side of the field, which took him nearly a minute to achieve!

The Rhinos defence was beginning to be stretched, and just before the break an outstanding effort kept out the opponents, but from the resulting lineout Oxford took the lead. The ball was thrown long, to the No.8 who crashed over from short range.

Turning around eight points to five up, the home side looked to push home the advantage of fresh legs. However, the visitors defence, with Robins-Cherry and the recalled Dan Packer in particular, standing firm the Rhinos slowly began to reassert themselves. Sharp, who led from the front all day, broke strongly from scrummages, and eventually the pressure began to force errors and ill discipline from the Oxford side. A needless bit of back chat cost them ten metres, and brought a penalty within range for Rhinos kicking machine Justin Wheeler, and he brought the scores level with ten minutes remaining. The home side failed to heed the warning, and with the seconds ticking away, they conceded twenty metres for loose tongues, and Wheeler had the chance to snatch all the points. However, concerns over his footing, saw the winger snatch at the kick and the Sharp’s troops had to settle for the draw.

Team

Andy Clark
Alex Cooper
Lindsey Abery
Scott Stevens
Diego Barrow
Dave Osborne
Marc McAdden
Colin Sharp
Gareth Belshaw
Mark Lilley
Simon Waterer
Jerry Downs
Dan Packer
Justin Wheeler
Nick Robins-Cherry

Man of the Match

There could be a case for any one (or indeed all of the team) to collect the award for this Herculean effort. The captain led by example, and his runs from the scrum gained valuable yardage, while he again dominated the lineouts. Barrow and Stevens (yellow card aside) belied their obvious discomfort, while the flankers McAdden and Osborne were always in the thick of things. In the backs, Belshaw worked as hard as ever, although his box kicking was a little off colour, and fly half Mark Lilley was unlucky not to get more reward from his fine touch kicking.

However, this week’s award goes to centre Dan Packer. In defence, he was simply outstanding; two of the tackles took the wind (literally) out of opponents’ sails, whilst in attack he constantly broke through the gain line, and then some, giving his pack a great platform to work from.

Captain’s Reaction

Any disappointment that Sharp may have had at losing his 100% league record was far outweighed by his pride in the team’s performance and effort in trying conditions.

“The pitch was a bog, the ball was like soap, we started with 14 and both our second rows should really not have played. Well done Scotty and Diego, I know that one hurt. Our try was scored by NRC, who put in another strong performance and fortunately for the late Mr Wheeler (wishful thinking) he kicked the penalty to draw the game.

Thanks to Lyndsey (Abery), (Dan) Packer and Alex (Cooper), who all stepped in at short notice to help us out and all played well.

I had one remaining goal for our season, which was to win all our league games, but it was not to be. The draw on Saturday, I’m told, means that we need only to turn up for our other fixtures and we’ve won the league, but we knew we would do that before the season started.”

Thames Valley Invitation League – Division B

This was the only fixture to take place this week, with Drifters visit to Windsor being postponed. The win leaves Reading with 26 points out of a possible 27 and a four point gap at the top of the table. With no side being able to get more than 28 points, and this leaves Reading on the brink of a third consecutive title. We understand that Marlow have conceded their match against the Rhinos, and if this is the case, then they are the Champions. However, Reading will be keen to extend their unbeaten run to well over two seasons and to finish the campaign in style.

Reading now take a couple of weeks off, with friendlies against Chinnor Vets (H) this weekend followed by a trip to Basingstoke Vets, before travelling to Drifters II on 20^th March for their penultimate league fixture.