Old Alleynians RFC

Sat 13 Nov 2021, 14:30

Old Alleynians

34 - 24

(HT 0-0)

Beckenham

Old Alleynians

Beckenham

OA’s first XV carve their own slice of history 

OAs vs Beckenham 34-24

13^th November 2021

By Alex Smith

A fired-up OAs 1^st XV put on a blistering first half display to mark the first win against a Beckenham 1^st XV in living memory. A local derby and a massive home victory marks four wins and one loss against the top six sides in the league this season and completed a block of five wins out of five, with four of them involving bonus points for tries scored.

The OAs entered the game with more changes; an alteration to the back three and a new look centre partnership. However, the crowd were cheered to see the return of Gilliam Crouch to the starting 15 after a layoff with a nose injury.

Despite the changes the home side were quick to open the scoring with a truly superb one-handed finish from Adetosoye in the corner. This was followed by a round of back slapping from the coaches, as his conversion to the wing is starting to look a master stroke, though keen-eyed observers maybe asking ‘what took so long’? A second try followed an excellent break from Henry Dewing near his own line, which was followed by another from Robbie ‘the real deal’ Outram (Tommy who?), who made use of a hydraulic hand off to deal with the Beckenham #12*, before touching down under the posts.

It was another week in which OAs were heavily down in the penalty count, with the Beckenham back row applying consistent and successful pressure at the breakdown. However, the home side’s lineout and scrummaging were superb and prevented Beckenham from maintaining any kind of pressure in the first half. The majority of scrums were won against the head by Thompson, while Beckenham failed to consistently get clean ball from their own lineouts. Conversely the OAs driving maul and lineout functioned flawlessly. The half ended with a try from Crouch off the base of the scrum.

The OAs entered the second half well in control of the contest and feeling very confident, largely picking up from where they left off in the first half. A try from Adetosoye followed and it looked like the game was sewn up. However, at this point, either the home side went to sleep, or Beckenham woke up, maybe both. 

Beckenham scored three tries in quick succession to bring the game into touching distance. Their scores came because of good individual skill and lacklustre defending which compounded pressure on the OAs. With the game in back in the balance Outram made another break in a move eventually finished by Hamish Hardiman on debut. Nerves were finally calmed.  

It was now a case of settling down and seeing out the game. It wouldn’t be OAs if we made it easy. Sadly, Osuntokun was lost to a shoulder injury after another excellent performance. However, the loss of our lineout talisman did not stop the OA’s from seeing out the half, though it was more than a little stressful. Henry Dewing took home MOTM after digging his side out of trouble multiple times and making several excellent breaks. 

Like a fine South American vintage wine, men get better with age. So it is proving for the OA’s 2020-21 vintage, but like the best wines, there is a journey to the peak. In the meantime, we’ll enjoy the taste of sour wine and victory.