Southwold v Holt 23.04.14

 A bleak day dawned. Cold, windy, sombre, overcast.  Much like Rob's mood when it become apparent that only 12 Holt lads had made the effort to travel to the ends of the earth...well, Southwold...on a Sunday morning. Southwold kindly lent us a couple of players taking the number to 14 by kick off. 

The boys taking in every single word of advice.

Holt were playing uphill but with wind behind in the first half.  Ally kicked off and it was clear from the first few minutes that this would be a competitive match. Good commitment by both sides and, with the match being played on a small pitch, there was little room to run around the outside. Holt struck first.  Good strong running from Theo who broke clear and made 30 yards, and Alex Storey, then Jack and Dean clearing out a ruck in text book style and Jenks doing it the hard way by running through 5 Southwold tackles to touch down in the corner.  5-0 Holt. 

The break out.

The flying finish.

Southwold came back from the kick off and forced their way into the Holt 22. Somewhat surprisingly their 10 decided to attempt a drop goal with a clear overlap outside him. The ball wobbled over. 5-3 Holt. It had become clear by now that we had the upper hand in the set scrum, our stalwart front row of Alexander, Dean and George coming up trumps again.  Southwold must have been a good 2 stones a man heavier. Shows that contrary to the impression given, some of the scrum must listen to Carl during training! Or it could be luck.

Crafer, the flanker. I'm sure that's what they said when he had a case of
white line fever breaking from the back of a driving maul 5 metres out,
only to end up 5 metres further back. Of course I could have been mistaken...

Bees round a honey pot.

There followed a scrappy period of play with neither side able to dominate. Some good defence from Caz, stepping in at 9, and Matti in the centre stick in the mind. Eventually, after the fourth offside penalty in as many minutes against Holt, Southwold's enormous prop dropped over the line. 8-5 Southwold, 20 minutes played. Holt caught the restart cleanly, Jack made a break and Alex S powered over to score. An excellent conversion added by Ally meant the score at half time was 12-8 to Holt.

Matti needing some more hair gel.

Alexander about to drive into the referee. Tempting at times...

Southwold kicked off to start the second half. The ball was well fielded by Will, the borrowed 15 and he cleared the ball beyond the half way line. There followed a purple patch for about 10 minutes of vintage Holt attacking rugby with all the boys contributing. Jack broke clear, passed to Alec who was stopped a metre short. Good quick recycling saw Ally score under the posts. 19-8. Immediately from the restart Jack again threw a dummy, hurtled through a gap and Alex S finished off emphatically, scoring his second try of the day. 26-8. It really was a wonderful display by Holt of committed running rugby, with excellent interlinking between backs and forwards and effectively sealed the result.

Snatch and grab.

Jacko hopping to give Southwold time to catch up.

For the final 15 minutes Southwold came back into the match. This was followed by a great pick up and go from Jenks at the base of a dominant scrum, good sniping work from Caz at 9, some strong running from Alexander, Theo, Alex and Matti all impressed. The last play of the game was excellent.  Southwold kicked from their 22, Alec was in perfect position and fielded the ball by the touchline. He set off on a jinking run, making good ground.  The forwards piled in to ensure quick ball and Matti walked in for our final score by the posts.  33-8 final.

Nose plant time.

Storeymaker looking the part. (Please swap letters around for your amusement).

An actual penalty to Holt, captured on film.

It was great to see the response from the Holt lads to the tough loss last week to Walsham. They played the whole game with 14 men and came out fairly comfortably on top. Men of the match for Holt - Caz for his all round game at 9 and Alex S for his 2 tries and strong running. Again, no turd awarded this day. Special thanks to the Southwold lads who played for us - Will at 15 had an excellent match and it was great to see Christian back in the Holt shirt.

Holt men of the match. Alex and Caz. Well done guys, could have gone to a number of players.
No turd awarded this week as everyone put such a great shift in.

An action shot of the author. Great work on this season's match reports,
sometimes even in the same week as the actual match.

Photography thanks to Amelia Ghanbouri and her new assistant Tracey Ghanbouri (when Amelia had lost the use of her hands through frostbite)..

Maybe a selfie is required next game, with the boys in the background as a show of their appreciation for her catching them at their best.