And so, the glorious Hammers arrived in unfamiliar territory.  Is this a hockey club? Asked a bemused (and nameless) Hammers 2^nd rower.

And indeed it was, but also a rugby club, and football, golf, netball, shooting, sailing, squash, and tennis club as well. A swiss army knife of a place.

Sharing a changing room with another team, the mood was confused. Anticipation watered down by the bucketing rain- the first of the 19/20 season.

After the warmup, with the wise and direct words of coach Mark ‘Jacko’ Jackson ringing in their ears, the boys in red, white, and blue set about the task of a cup run.

Immediately, they came under a barrage of fire from a well drilled, aggressive OC’s pack. Taking a solid few minutes of pressure, eventually the hammers cracked- a penalty given away in front of the sticks. 3-0 to OC’s.

The kick-off went deep, and immediately the privately educated chaps of deepest Surrey were on the offensive again. In all, hammers spent circa 15 minutes under the cosh to begin the game. That the only try conceded amidst all this time defending came out on OC’s left wing was a blessing. Conversion missed, 8-0 to OC’s.

20 minutes in, Hammersmith finally got their hands on the ball. Powerful runs from the likes of Steve ‘first name’ John up the middle, complemented with the whirling feet and pace of SJ ‘blessed’ Mahon out wide, got the SW6 lads into some strong attacking positions. Inaccurate lineout work and some tricky handling conditions delayed the build-up play, but finally Zac ‘not Phul’ Halliday connected with Jordan ‘nameless’ Abbot, and the hammers got a driving maul working over to the right hand side of OC’s tryline.

Mitchell ‘Mitchell’ Mitchell (Lewis) stepped up and nervelessly slotted the conversion, 8-7 the score.

“Come on OC’s” screamed a local fan, for the thousandth, and not the last, time of the day, but the rest of the half remained scoreless- not through lack of application, but as a result of the deteriorating conditions.

The second half got underway, and honestly not much happened for the first 15 minutes. It rained, hammers dropped the ball. It rained some more, OC’s dropped the ball. The ref blew the whistle, both teams blew chances, etc.

Suddenly, Hammers took the lead. Pragmatic phase play in OC’s half led to a penalty that Joe ‘middlesexy’ Carolan slotted. Nervelessly. as all successful kicks are (without a thesaurus at least). 8-10, the visitors in front for the first time.

This was followed in reasonably quick succession by another penalty, also belted through by Joe ‘JC’ Carolan. 8-13, and the Fulham men started to believe.

Both teams continued to go hammer and tongs at each other. Jack ‘pooper’ Hooper make good yards, Cillian ‘Friday drinks’ Waldron put in some shuddering hits, Sam ‘cambridge’ White made strong runs and threw a couple of cute offloads- Alex ‘2^nd best Alex’ Hart the beneficiary making excellent yardage. But, with inaccuracy still present, and the OC’s gaining the upper hand in the scrum, the game slowly progressed.

Suddenly, the scores levelled. Alex ‘Jackos best mate’ Gee gave away a tenuous penalty (in the authors opinion), OC’s kicked, and Ed ‘great education’ James mate an absolute hash of fielding it. From the resulting scrum, OC’s used their only area of superiority to get over the line. The kick was missed, 13 all.

The game went to extra time. Both teams dug in, emptied the tank, and scrapped in the muddy conditions.

But no one could do much of anything, and after 100 minutes of back and forth rugby the scores remained tied.

A check with the rules official, OC’s win on countback, 2 tries scored to 1. A heart-breaking loss for Hammersmith, but always gracious in defeat, genuine congratulations for the victors.

Hammers MOTM and debutant Zac ‘pints’ Halliday absolutely smashed the pint race, so there’s a victory in there somewhere.

Japan’s win against Ireland set the premise for what was to be a great day of rugby at Hurlingham Park. The Japanese house music played in the changing rooms before the game served only as motivation for the squad to correct the errors of the last two weeks.

The game started with 10 minutes of heavy pressure from Hampstead attacking from deep in their half and using the wide spaces well. Some good one-on-one tackles from Taylor Williams at fullback prevented a brace of tries early on. Hampstead managed to cross the line in the left-hand corner after a flowing backs move, only for Mitch Lewis to stop the ball from being grounded. The referee deemed the tackle to be high and gave a penalty try.

The Hammers fought back into the game through some dominant play by the forwards which eventually earnt a penalty in the opposition 22 and kicking it to touch. The resulting lineout was well won, and a subsequent maul was finished off by hooker Phil Lord, bringing the scores closer to 5-7. Hampstead recognised the threat posed by the maul and were hesitant to engage the Hammers in this for the remainder of the match.

The Hammers’ scrum remained solid throughout the game which provided a good base for the second try. Angus Lean picked from the base of a scrum 5 metres out and barrelled his way over. Joe Carolan kicked the conversion and the home team finished the half 12-7 up.

The second 40’ was dominated by gritty defence and yellow cards. A good press from the Hammers’ defence allow Hampstead little space in attack and resulted in the early part of this half being played in the visitors’ twenty-two. Mitch Lewis capitalised on this pressure to go over the line after a series of pick and goes from the forwards.

At 17-7 the tide seemed to turn and Hampstead pushed their way back into the game. Tim Williams was yellow carded for a high tackle resulting in 10 minutes of frantic, scrambled yet resilient defence from the home team. Just as Tim was preparing to come back on Taylor Williams momentarily forgot that he had to remain on his feet at a ruck and was penalised 5 metres from Hammers’ line. The referee felt the play to be cynical and while Tim was welcomed back onto the pitch, Taylor was sent for a 10-minute rest. The one-man adva

ntage finally paid off with the Hampstead scrum-half going over in the corner. Conversion successful: 17-14.

The home team controlled the game well from this point on and played the majority of the game from the opposition half. With four minutes to go, an overthrow by the opposition at the lineout allowed Steve John to go over for the fourth try and all-important bonus point.

Final score: Hammersmith & Fulham 22 – 14 Hampstead

For their second league fixture of the season, the Hammers travelled to London Cornish looking for another convincing win off the back of the 72-7 game vs Grasshoppers.

Warm up essentially consisted of walking the 20 miles between the changing rooms and the pitch and both teams were ready for what would be a competitive and physical game. It only took a few minutes for the Hammers to understand that Cornish’s backrow, averaging 6’2’’, would be the core of their attacking structure, facing a tough but vertically challenged 7-8 combination made of Ash and Jack Small.

Strong carries by the Cornish and lack of discipline from the Hammers gave the Cornish’s kicker an opportunity to get on the scoreboard and after 10 minutes the score was 3-0 for the locals. Good pressure on the following kick off allowed the Hammers to settle in the opposition’s half and eventually resulted in a penalty 25m in front of the posts, duly converted by skipper and fly-half Jack Davies. 3-3 after about 15 minutes.

London Cornish spent most of the first half ball in hand but were consistently denied by a red brick wall. On the other hand, H&F made the best of a few opportunities and a couple of phases after Ashton Mitchell sat down his opposite number, much to the surprise of all involved, Man of the Match Rob Fox ran a superb line and brought the Hammers back into the opposition half, taking advantage of a Cornish’s pair of centres more interested in interceptions than tackles.

As the Hammers got closer to the try line, they were rewarded by a penalty less than 10 meters in front of the posts. Taking everyone by surprise, including his teammates, Jordan Abbott tapped the ball before running into three defenders and scored the first try of the game, converted by Jack Davies. Cornish 3 – 10 HFRFC.

Determined to get back into the game, London Cornish bucked themselves up and set up a siege in Hammersmith’s 22’s for the remainder of the first half. Succession of penalties led to Ollie Rea being yellow-carded for a side entry on a maul. Great 7-man scrum and good pressure from scrum-half Louis van Langenhove forced Cornish’s no.8 to spill the ball out of the scrum and half-time was called before the local team could cross the white wash.

Second half started with a few amends in the backline, Slade Buchner having to move from second row to outside centre after the 1s drafted Ross Anderson. HFRFC quickly gained a penalty 25m on the right of the posts and Jack Davies didn’t miss the opportunity to increase the visitors’ lead. Cornish 3 – 13 HFRFC.

After spending the first half playing one-pass rugby off the nine, London Cornish decided the play wide and managed to make a break on the wing and enter the Hammers’ 22s. HFRFC’s infamous lack of discipline eventually offered a penalty 15m in front of the posts and opposition’s fullback had no problem kicking the ball over the bar. London Cornish 6 – HFRFC 13.

50 minutes into the game and Hammersmith and Fulham finally managed to play their game. Strong carries by Rob Fox and Sam White combined to a few penalties in Hammers’ favour moved the game into Cornish’s 22s. Sam White, again, used the momentum created by a good driving maul to get the Hammers on the try line and a couple of phases later, Ed Milner got the ball off the nine, bumped into a couple of defenders and scored under the posts. Try easily converted by Jack Davies (6/6 off the tee). London Cornish 6 – HFRFC 20.

As the Cornish were running after the score, the game became more open to the benefit of Hammers’ back three who thought this moment would never come.

Following another powerful driving maul in the opposition’s half, scrum-half Louis van Langenhove broke the defensive line in the middle of the park before offloading the ball to captain Jack Davies who then played wide for full-back Sam Smith. Another offload to this weekend’s second row/outside centre Slade Buchner and Chad’s second favourite brother put the ball down between the posts. Jack Davies added the conversion. London Cornish 6 – 27 HFRFC.

Few minutes later, a good call by Rob Fox allowed Sam N. to go for a run along the sideline before passing the ball inside to Sam S. Captain Jack picked the ball up, stepped the last defender and rewarded himself with a try underneath the posts before converting it. London Cornish 6 – 34 HFRFC.

Much to their credit, London Cornish didn’t give up whilst loosehead Sam White demonstrated why front-rows should never kick the ball. Last five minutes saw Ollie Rea being sent off for a second yellow card after he deliberately prevented the opposition scrum-half from tapping a penalty which could have resulted in a try. One minute later, it was Sam White’s turn to be yellow-carded for kicking the ball in a ruck, five meters away from the tryline. With two Hammer’s front rowers in the bin, London Cornish logically chose the scrum option. Little did they know that Jordan Abbott’s secret dream was to be a loosehead prop and as the Cornish found themselves under huge pressure from a 13-man defensive line, the ball was lost in contact and Hammersmith won the game without conceding a try.

Final score: London Cornish 6 – 34 Hammersmith & Fulham RFC.

 

Old Reigatians’ Twitter account described the fixture as “the final dress rehearsal for the new season”, in fact, neither team was caught mumbling their line out calls or repairing their costumes, instead there was a high-quality game of rugby under the August currant bun.

Old Reigatians (OR) started the first half the better team, dominating the lineout and delivering clean ball to their back line and making solid tackles on the gain-line to prevent H&Fs attack into OR’s half for the first 10 minutes. Once with possession OR denied H&F the ball at the breakdown and continued to work the forwards hard with OR’s no. 5 and 6 who proved to be great ball carriers and consistently made yards through H&Fs defence. This continued pressure ultimately led to a well-worked converted-try for OR, 15 minutes into the game. 7-0.

A strong 30m carry from Alex Gee (H&F 12) gave H&F some breathing room, but it was not to last. OR’s 10 used the prevailing wind to his advantage and deftly put boot to ball. This well-judged kicking put OR in H&Fs 22 dangerously soon after the converted try. OR managed to steal the lineout and possession leading to further pressure on H&F. OR 1^st XV, who were proving to be a well-drilled side, worked the ball through the hands and successfully converted another try leaving the scores at 14-0 and 10 minutes to go until half time.

At this point H&F regrouped, showing a character and stamina which had been lacking at points in the previous season, and the defence developed a spine all of a sudden. Angus Lean (H&F 8) hit back with a serious defensive shot that rang out across the Surrey Hills and could only be recreated by a Blaser. With the ball spilled by OR this led to a counter-attack opportunity, and who better to seize a counter-attack moment than our Frenchman Alex Jouan (15). A rapid 40m line break was balanced with the ability to wait and look for support ultimately led to Ben Hatton (9) scoring under the posts with the assistance of Cillian Waldron (13). Ben Hatton with the conversion.14-7 and half-time.

Team talks over. Whistle blown. Game on. H&F came out fired up and fiercely physical in the second half with even Rogan making significant yards and winning the contact contest. A huge effort from the H&F forwards led to a 10m-out scrum being pushed-over the line and a Pete Benson scoring the try, sending OR back to underneath the posts to process the score. Top conversion kicking by Ben Hatton, despite a strong crosswind, levelled the scores at 14-14.

H&F had the wind and put boot to ball in an aggressive fashion, opening up the game and involving the back 3 on both teams. H&F gained some territory before a half-break and subtle offload by Joe Carolan (H&F 10) meant Jack Hopper (11) could whistle across the line and take H&F ahead for the first time in the match. 14-21.

H&F went straight in from the kick-off and won a penalty for hands in the ruck. Ben Hatton steps up and slots the penalty for 3 points with ease from about 35m out. 14-24.

OR looked to retaliate with a well-worked backs move from the set-piece involving depth, hard running lines and good handling skills. Dragged down by some desperate tackles OR made yards and quickly moved the ball to leave H&Fs defence out-numbered out-wide. OR were back in the game with 21-24 on the scoreboard and 10 minutes to go. Could H&F hold out?

A penalty against Phil Lord (H&F 3) left the skipper thinking “Lordy Lordy Lord, I’m going to strangle you Phil” as OR were given the perfect footing to make a serious attack to win the game. H&F braced themselves for the assault and strong first-up tackles by Pete, Sam, Angus and Cillian kept OR 5-10m out for 4 phases of play. OR had tried the direct route but found no way through and with the last phase of the game were forced to chance it wide but who should be there waiting, eyeing up the touchline and adjusting his hair before the big hit, other than Nick Manning ©. The whole-team effort to keep OR out in the dying moments of the game resulted in OR being bundled into touch and the score at full time being 21-24, H&F taking the win in the pre-season dress rehearsal.

The determination to dig deep and come back from 14-0 will be something that H&F hold onto for the coming season. Phil might get strangled, but Hammersmith and Fulham have added grit to their repertoire for the season ahead.