Nottingham Casuals 21 Ashbourne 19

3 December 2011
Midlands 2 East ~(North)

That was too close for comfort. Winning ugly that must be it.

Casuals started brightly and were putting lot of pressure on the visitors’ defence, when on 6 minutes a simple ball down the backs to Charlie Bradwell who sidestepped and powered through a gap in Ashbournes defence for a great opening try.
Higgins duly put the conversion over.
Only a few minutes later, an attack by Ashbourne failed miserably when Steve Naylor intercepted an pass in Casuals 22, and he outran the despairing defenders for a superb individual try.
Higgins again put over the kick.

This was followed by some good play by Casuals and they forced play down to near Ashbourne’s goal line.
From the ensuing maul it was Ian Slater (Podge) who blasted his way over for the 3rd try. Unstoppable from that distance. Just reward for his efforts up till then.
Higgins again obliged with the conversion.

21 – nil and it was looking good for Casuals.

Casuals defence unfortunately let them down coming up to ½ time, when Ashbourne were able to launch a concerted attack up field, and somehow they got through for an unconverted try.

With a strong wind in their faces in the 2nd half, Casuals knew they were going to have to defend like they had done the previous week.
Only spasmodically winning their own lineouts, and with the scrum going backwards, Casuals had a major job on their hands.
No 8 Ben Wells managed to pick up a number of balls at the back of the scrum, and his drives forward helped Casuals to keep things intact, but what was happening in the scrums, only Casuals front 5 would know.

Casuals defence seemed to be making a good job of it, with Ashbournes’ attacks being stemmed repeatedly and they made a lot of unforced errors.
Unfortunately luck was not on Casuals side (luck?) As Ashbourne put the ball down their backs, there was a massive forward pass right on Casuals 22, (that’s the big white line that runs across the pitch) the ball visibly crossing the line in the wrong direction, and Ashbourne went in for their 2nd try, which was converted.

Finally on 30 minutes of the second half , Casuals contrived to lose their own ball in a scrum, and Ashbourne gleefully took the 7 points.

Fortunately Ashbourne could not convert a couple of late penalties, and despite being on the back foot towards the end of the game, Casuals probably deserved this win.

It must be said though, if the ref is having a less than brilliant game, it cannot help to have players in his face making comments and telling him how to ref, and questioning his decisions. Yes. He did get some wrong, but he is not going to change his mind. Although the long conversations probably aided Casuals in running down the clock, it’s boring to watch.

Request : Let the ref get on with his game, concentrate on your own game, and don’t turn the ref against your side. Too much to ask?????
How would you react if players did this to you if you ever took up reffing, hey?