Old Boys Flourish in the Autumn Sunshine

The home side set about their task from the first whistle, catching their opponents cold and grabbing an early score from Bozier’s smart interception after 5 minutes. The pattern of play was quickly established with Park House forwards forcing OD’s to play a tighter game than they really wanted. A typical bull-dozing effort from the heavy Park House pack resulted in an equalising try, despite some good defence on show from Dunstonians, who were matching their local rivals for physicality. Half backs Coombs and Ubee followed a more structured game plan that effectively turned possession into territorial advantage, taking OD’s back into the opposition half and allowing Rory Palmer to show his paces and wrong foot the Park House defence.
This score seemed to instil real confidence in the home team, as Dunstonians dominated the rest of the half with two front row forward tries. Despite problems in the scrum, the OD line out was functioning well and Sam Perry exploited a driving maul to force his way over from short range. Then the lively Josh Ajiboye, typically, popped up to take a scoring pass that saw him cross the line unopposed. OD’s fully deserved their lead without looking totally convincing and it took a try from winger Jamal Gobir, following good work from the resurgent Tom McNamara, to settle the nerves after silly errors of judgement and execution were beginning to frustrate the Langley side.
Park House strength at the breakdown allowed them to turn what should have been hard yards into soft yards and early in the second half OD’s came under the cosh, pinned back in their own 22 and struggling for possession. It took an electric break by fly-half Mike Ubee to revitalise the OD effort and his mazy 50 metre run took him completely clear of the Park House defence, allowing him to deliver a scoring pass to Jamal Gobir who outstripped the half-hearted cover for what will surely be a contender for try of the season.
The Park House XV were visibly tiring and despite registering another converted try, never looked capable of mounting any sort of sustained rearguard action. At this stage, Dunstonians were beginning to click as they scored two more tries: one a virtuoso effort from replacement Pete Colling whose footballing skills from a rebound ended in a sublime catch on the full to send him under the posts unopposed and the second a perfectly executed backs move, straight off the training pitch, to put Diarmuid Raleigh in for his debut 1st XV try wide out.
Phil Ubee, seniors coach, was delighted with the team’s performance, praising their application and intensity throughout the whole 80 minutes: “We are progressing as a team and some of the play today rewarded the hard work these players are putting in to improve. The objective is to build on every performance so we get better every week and this win has definitely set the bar higher” he said.
Man of the Match: Mike Ubee who not only orchestrated the team performance and territorial advantage but also produced moments of individual skill to confound the opposition at crucial moments of the game.