Local Rivals Compete in a Mud Fest - Saturday 9th November 2013

Everybody loves tradition, especially within the rugby community! So it was no surprise that this away game at our local rivals Old Isleworthians, began in a traditional November downpour!

The conditions may not have been ideal for running rugby, but you would be hard pressed to find a single rugby player in the UK who didn't enjoy the rain and mud that is so common at this time of year.

There is an old saying, "Forwards win games, backs decide by how much". That certainly is true of this game, with Old I's pack beginning the game with the upper hand.

Hanwell were using this fixture to experiment with new players and players in new positions and as a result, they began the game rather slowly and with a few handling errors.
Old I's on the other hand were dominant in the scrum, easily securing ball and attempting to get the ball wide at every opportunity.

Hanwell's defence was solid and stood firm from the kick off, despite a good twenty minutes of pressure from the home team. The Old I's backs, despite getting good ball from their forwards, could find no way through the wall of Green & Black - eventually electing to kick over the top to try and make ground.
The kick was gathered by the visitor's Fullback Paul, who ran across the Isleworthian's defensive line from left to right, offloading to winger Dan Horner - making his return from an ankle injury sustained back in September who ran deep into the host's 22, before superbly passing back inside to Paul to run unopposed under the posts to open the scoring. Jack Ryan (pictured) added the extras to make the score 0-7 to the away side.

From the restart, Hanwell pushed on and spent a prolonged period of time camped in their opponents half. The conditions worsened as the heavens re-opened and the rain fell heavily, resulting in some handling mistakes from both sides.
Old I's threw everything they had at the away side, including using their sizeable prop to attempt to smash holes in the Hanwell defence. However, it was the away side who were on top and who were starting to build numerous phases. Eventually, scumhalf Paul Doherty picked up in the Old I's 2 and broke through a gap to score and give Jack Ryan another easy conversion.

The home team's frustrations began to build and they began to lose their composure - resulting in their flyhalf being sent to the bin for kicking away the ball following a penalty against them. In the heat of the moment, he questioned the referee's decision and in the interests of a fair game, the home team chose to keep him from the remainder of the game.
Once the initial ten minute yellow card period was over, Hanwell offered the home side a player in order to keep the game equal in numbers.
Shortly afterwards however, Old I's lost another player - this time to injury. Again, Hanwell offered another player to once again ensure the numbers remained 15 per side.

Hanwell's generosity did not extend to the scoreline however, when once again fullback Paul collected a kick and this time ran through from 40 yards out to score in the corner just on the stroke of half time. The conversion was missed, to leave the scores 0-19 at the break.

The second half began slightly disjointed from both sides, leading to a long period with handling errors and the resulting scrums.
Eventually, Old Isleworthians began to build a few phases of play and poor discipline by Hanwell led to a succession of penalties which the home team chose to scrum down.
The home team's pressure eventually led to a score of their own, although they failed to grab the extras, closing the scores to 5-19 to Hanwell.

The dent in the away side's defence hurt and Hanwell began to play with fire in their bellies again with Paul Doherty first breaking away and offloading to hooker John Bodman to run in unopposed - only for the referee to call it back for a forward pass. This was shortly followed by another break from the hooker called back for a penalty to Hanwell, when the advantage would have been better played.

Hanwell were not done though and eventually sustained pressure by the forwards began to stretch the home side and a quick move wide was scored under the posts for a seven pointer to end the game Old Isleworthians 5 - Hanwell 26.

Following the game, Old Isleworthians proved to be fantastic hosts as the two teams settled down to watch the England game in the clubhouse. Next up for Hanwell will either be a cup game against London Welsh or potentially a second friendly against Old I's.

14th November 2013