Papa John’s Cup
Match Report by Papa Kerrang

HEATHFIELD & WALDRON 51-7 TRINITY

The Papa John’s cup campaign ended in round two, thus avoiding the potential joys of a trip to Penryn, via Ashford. Although the score does not look too promising, half of this game was intensely competitive, and it was the first half, not a lazy second period by a team in control.

Trinity opened the scoring on five minutes when Agbalaya F stepped his way out of a couple of tackles and was left with a clear run in from twenty-five metres as a consequence. Telfer B added the conversion. The home team replied with a penalty within a couple of minutes, but the opportunity to impose themselves on the match was lost by Trinity shortly after that. A long range Telfer penalty attempt that seemed set to go over just got blown off course by the wind close to the posts and a break from mid-pitch by Caplin T left him with one man to beat. Opting to pass rather than switch on the afterburners, his release went tantalisingly beyond the fingertips of True C, who had a clear run for a score.

The potential harm from these incidents was not only a young Heathfield side suddenly finding themselves two scores adrift, but Trinity had exposed that their enthusiastic defence was very vulnerable to someone just hitting it at the right angle, without too much subterfuge in the build up. With this opportunity gone, the home side scored next for a 10-7 lead, and for the rest of the half scoring chances were few and far between. A score in the corner with the last touch of the half gave H&W a 15-7 half time advantage that may have slightly flattered them on the balance of play.

Now it is time for a digression. That final score of the half came after Trinity were penalised in a good attacking situation from a turnover, and although it took a few phases for the try to come, they conceded without regaining possession. The offence for which Hubbard O was penalised was for running in possession with shoulders low to the ground, preventing a legal tackle being made, and new law introduced hand-in-hand with the high tackle ones. From the side, it looked fairly obvious that he was bracing for contact, and going to ground to set the ruck. Due to the turnover and change of direction in the play, the referee’s view was from behind, and he saw it differently. This is (yet another?) case where the laws are playable at top level with neutral touch judges to advise the referee and in some instances a TMO chirping away, but for referees at our level, with zero assistance or other angles, it is virtually impossible to officiate other than by luck based on where they are standing at the time. Rant over.

On to the second half, and the verdict is least said soonest mended. Trinity had quite an old team starting, and due to poor availability, no subs travelled. Thus they were bound to be on the back foot thoughout, and unfortunately had the game slip away with two scores conceded early in the half for a 29-7 margin. After that H&W popped in a couple more, and then closed with two tries against fourteen men after Hubbard went off injured. Trinity had one spell of pressure, spoiled when conceding a turnover right on the line, and Scott A thought he might be over for a try, only to find that the referee was playing advantage for a (very) not straight line out by Trinity. A little bit insulting to our ball handling to play on when we had retained possession from the offence! Other points of note? The scrum went well all day. The ball handling on crash balls or tight support was mostly better than in the last couple of league games, although the occasional let down was especially inopportune. One particular moment, when Crouch D took a quick penalty on our line, made quite a lot of yardge and appeared to have put McEvilly M in with one man to beat was an especially dismaying instance. And finally, although very tired, the effort in defence against opponents determined to get the ball to their wingers, remained high throughout.

I have run a barrel-load of simulations and have established that in all probability, had we got a full bench of subs, Cappers had scored early in the game, the referee had sent off one of their players for disparagingly calling Telfer a “typical northerner” (a statement not untrue, but delivered in unsporting fashion) and Russ had refilled the water bottles more quickly at half time, then we might have won.