Bulldogs 5 - 5 Teddington Antlers
Hi chaps
What a great game on Saturday against a very good Teddington Club side made up of their 2nds and 3rds and the odd 1st team player!!
We played away at their ground in Bushey Park and it was a very wet and muddy pitch with little footing control for our fast and illusive outsides and the conditions favoured the heavier Teddington pack.
With Tinks in Las Vegas on his Boxing beano Malcolm stepped in and beefed up the front row and managed to hang in there giving the oppo stick until way into the second half when the old war would started to play up and had to call it a day.
The game started well with Lennie winning the toss and elected to play with the wind behind us….good call and this enabled Roger playing at 10 to Ben at 9 putting some massive touch kicks to push us down into the opposition half on many accessions and upsetting the Teddington forward play. Teddington proved to be a well drilled side and their training was very obvious. In the line out as can be seen from the photo report we are being out jumped all the time and had little ball from the lineout
However our scrum was superb and we won about four against the head with Andrew at hooker having a really great game supported by Johno and Big Malc . Ben at scrum half had a field day with some awesome tackling and creaming the Teddington back row on a number of occasions as they tried to force their way through our defence but with Dave U back and Saffa working hard there was no way through and if they did get through then Steve was their to tidy up. We had a very competent back row coupled with a very determined Ben who took no prisoners at scrum half!
The big drives were there with Lennie and Simon forging through the Teddington side but their defence was also tight and it was a very close contest.
We had a number of key players away but our strength in depth showed up …our outside line of Roger, Jamie, Ian , Nick , Martin soon upset the opposition with neat and fast moves that so many times would have resulted in tries but for the fact that the ground was so slippery .
The opposition finally git through with a forward try but did not convert it and so we were 5 points down
Jamie put in a number of searing attacks and was rewarded by making a well supported try by Ian at centre and Teddington were a little shaken by our determined play and awesome defence that gave nothing away.
And so we moved into the late stages of the second half and Teddington had a penalty more or less inline with the posts but they opted for a touchline kick. They made a good right in the corner and it looked omimnious for us. But with the score at 5- 5 the Bulldogs had no intentions of loosing and we put in some of the most determined and effective defence in the last 10 mins that made Teddington realise that they were up against not a trained side, not a well drilled side but a side that believed in itself with players that gave 100% and with that unique quality of Bulldog spirit and camaraderie that holds us above other sides when the odds are down.
Teddington made a last effort and the ball whizzed down the line with good passing to cries of “ Champagne rugby “ by the Teddingtron supporters and a try looked don but they had not taken into account that little extra that we pulled out and the bulldog defence went into overdrive and stopped dwaht would have been a cert try!
This was a great game that every Bulldog player enjoyed more than others that we have won because this was a test ….a test against a good trained and experienced side and we came out on top
This was a great game to watch and mad every Bulldog supporter very proud!!
Cheers
The roving match reporter