Civil Service 1^st XV v Shelford 1^st XV

Result : 36 points to 56 points 

Disruption and losing things appears to be spreading to all aspects of life at the start of 2008,

and this match had a fair degree of both as Shelford added another fifty plus points score with this win against Civil Service at a sparsely populated Civil Service Sports Club ground. Any concerns that the Christmas break would have an effect on Shelford’s current run of good performances were quickly marshalled into a convenient siding as they started at an express pace. Within the first quarter of an hour, Shelford had registered seventeen points with converted tries by Alex Birxby and Aki Lee and a penalty by Tom Dann.

All the signals pointed to the Civil Service try line as the Shelford forwards shunted their opponents around the field of play at will. Not to be out done, the Shelford three quarters mixed  their game plan to good effect and were rewarded for their enterprise with an unconverted by Charlie Worthington, a converted try by Liam Dearns and a further penalty by Tom Dann. Coupled between these points was a further unconverted try  which demonstrated the control and skill level that Shelford had imposed on the match from the outset.

The initial phase started when the forwards turned over Civil Service ball on the halfway line, they then proceed to drive a resulting maul to within the opposition’s twenty two metre line. The ball was quickly moved to Tom Dann who judged his chip over the oncoming Civil Service defensive line to allow Richard Davies to expertly collect an unfavourable bounce and force his way over between the posts. With Alex Birxby marshalling his forwards to good effect and distributing the ball to cause maximum indecision from Civil Service, he was able to ensure that Shelford ended the first half with a twenty three point advantage when, as a result of one of the many driving mauls, he cleverly exploited  space on the blind side to put Aki Lee over from two metres out for yet another unconverted try. The second half started with the score line standing at 12 points to 35 points in Shelford’s favour, and was immediately added too, when, directly from the restart, Civil Service were unable to control the drop kicked ball.

Charlie Worthington was alert to the situation and gathered the loose ball and although he was tackled in the process of crossing the try line, Dafydd Lewis was in close support to register one more converted try. Crucially however,  with both Dominic Jones and Alex Birxby had been forced to leave the field due to injury at half time. The ultimate result, not surprisingly, due the forced reorganisation within their forward set up and their three quarter line, was that a continuation of normal service was severely disrupted thereafter.

With this being accompanied by their customary quite second half spell there was a loss of momentum and direction and Shelford allowed themselves to be panicked by a Civil Service side who took full advantage of the situation to score twenty four unanswered points. With fifteen minutes left of the match , Sam Tovo, the Shelford Head Coach, decided to test his injured knee and came on as a late substitute which coincided with normal service being restored with additional tries being added by  Kramer Ronaki and Scott Jackowski, one of which was converted by Tom Dann.

With the final whistle, the score line read at 36 points to 56 points, and Shelford reflected on the completion of their second home and away victory double, retention of their fourth place in London League 1 and a further reduction in the points difference between themselves and the third placed team. 

They now move on to play Old Albanians on the 19^th January at the Davey Field with the full expectation that they are on the right tracks.