Cotham Park RFC The closest Rugby club to Clifton in Bristol

What a lovely day for rugby! The pitch freshly mown, the faint smell of Autumn hanging heavy in the air, Nick Comer’s bald spot glistening in the afternoon sun like an opal in a sea of green; almost brings a tear to the eye. Credit must go to the boys who got up to the club early to get the ground ready, everything looked great.

We knew the importance of this game; confidence had been dented after last week’s debacle so there was definitely a point to prove. We had a fresh looking team with bags of pace and after a good warm up we were ready to go; but at the back of my mind was still the knowledge that we have to cut down our penalty count.

We began the game strongly and quickly pushed the visitors back onto their line. Some strong forward play lead to the tireless John Board smashing his way over to score; with the kick successful we were up 7-0. Straight form the kick-off we again piled on the pressure, some quick off loads and strong rucking saw the ball eventually fed out to the backs. The ball found its way into my hands and for some reason couldn’t find its way out of them, people will say it was greedy and there was an overlap, but I’m still undecided! Needless to say I crossed the line, with the majority of the Cainscross backline on my back. This sounds far more impressive than it was as one of my ‘passengers’ was about 11 and had a lovely pair of pink boots on! I think out of spite for not passing, Comer smashed the kick from bang in front straight into the post, 12-0.

This early lead served as a bit of a poison chalice, we suddenly forgot how to play basic rugby. Passes started going to deck, kicks were poor and we started giving away penalties. These indiscretions saw us pushed back up the slope and towards our own line. A couple more penalties for ‘hands in’ and their number 9 pinned us back onto the line, some quick play from the Cainscross boys and they barged over for a try. Luckily their kicker had obviously enjoyed the sound of Nicks kick previously so much that he followed suit and struck the post, 12-5.

Truth be told, I can’t really remember how the scoring panned out for the rest of first half. I know that the ref kept telling me we weren’t playing well enough so I think it wasn’t going that well. We may have got one more try, think Nick might have got it?

Anyway, to the 2nd half. Now playing up the slope we had the wind at our backs and a steel in our hearts. We knew we had to start taking our chances and keep the scoreboard ticking over. The first half had been a slap dash affair but the disjointed nature of the play had clearly exhausted our opposition more than ourselves. Almost straight from the kick off we were in the ascendancy, the forwards started to gel, with pop passes finding their targets and the breakdown becoming a more solid platform. Luke’s distribution got cleaner and the backs started to dominate. The first half had seen the two wingers almost superfluous and with the amount of pace out wide this was obviously a waste. As the opposition tired and their trouncing of the offside line receded we began to create gaps everywhere. A simple delayed pass in the centre was all that was needed to confuse their inexperienced backs and the wingers were away, for the first game in a long time we had both wingers on the score sheet! Another fine performance from the wolfman Jack Kelly saw him cross for his first try of the season, despite his constant efforts to place himself at the base of every ruck possible. We also welcomed back the illusive Julian, his pace proved too much for Cainscross as he bulleted his way to 2 tries, by his own admission he could have had more but some ring rustiness and a serious case of ‘hands like feet’ had seen some guilt edge chances go begging- but we’ll forgive him in the long run. The scoring was rounded up when substitute and perma-tan lothario Ross Hutchings completed a sweeping move up the left to score in front of the now exuberant Park fans, and Ricky.

And so the final whistle came; in patches pretty, in patches pretty ropey, but a great victory none the less, 46-5 to the good guys.

Stringer

Result: 46-5 Win

Tries: John Board

Craig Coulstring

Nick Comer

Julian Hoffman (2)

Jack Kelly

Ross Hutchings

Conv: Nick Comer 4