I hate to say it but the forwards won us the match

We knew it would be a tough game on their home turf and with their 2s not having a game, for once we started strong.

The early dominance of our forwards in the scrum quickly lead to a penalty to give us three points. This dominance also led to the “injury” of Billy Bignalls opposite number in the first half and inevitable uncontested scrums. Before this “injury” we were playing some wonderful rugby with the forwards doing the dirty work extremely well and our backs making the most of some great ball. Beckenham could only give away penaltys and by half time we we 12 – 0 up.

At the beginning of the second half we seemed to think we had the game in the bag. This combined with the pointless 16 man hug turned the next 15 minutes into what can only be described as a worrying period. Only seeing Si Allen saunter up to me in the showers swinging his “whacking stick” in glee has made me more nervous. Beckenham ran some good straight lines in the backs and scored two tries and a conversion to level the scores at 12 – 12. In this period we also lost Ben Faurie the scrum half to injury. Normally wouldn't be a problem but when I checked the bench we had two props a second row and a back rower.

Every Captain has hard decisions to make at some point. But my hard choice of which forward to place in the backs was made easier by frustrated winger/centre John “no bones in my arms or legs” Candlish. I think I saw a little wee when I asked him to switch to outside centre. It was also time to see two promising youngsters play in Reece Conlon and Harrison Nobbs. To complete the trio we sent on super sub Anthony Creed. Due to the lack of backs and us being on the back foot large the instructions were simple. Keep it tight with the forwards and drive it at em.

The forwards led by Dave Stevens took no more telling and this is where we won a game we could have easily lost. Creedy immediately drove over for a try from forward pressure and our pack kept on at them. Continuous drives from Jamie Taylor now playing at 8 and well supported by the rest of the pack meant that we were now back in control. A ball did eventually make its way out to our eager backs only to be taken on by the aforementioned JC. With only one man to beat JC found his bendy arms had dropped the ball onto his foot but luckily his equally bendy legs reacted and hoofed the ball into the air and over the last defender. JC ran after it like Mr Tickle on red bull and touched the ball down for what has to be the try of the season so far.

The game ended 12 – 25 to us. An excellent result by a team that is now backing up its undoubted skill with some real spirit and determination.

Chris