Broadstreet Bow Out of All Warwickshire Cup Competitions.

It was a disappointing month of Warwickshire Cup rugby for Broadstreet as the club were eliminated from the competitions at 2nd XV, Colts and 1st XV levels in the space of two weeks.

 

 

2nd XV.  Broadstreet RFC 10 - 26 Sutton Coldfield RFC

In a largely untroubled cup run that saw Broadstreet ease into the Final they came up against last year’s winners Sutton Coldfield in a repeat fixture of the 2011 Final. Sutton Coldfield as a club have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years and the whole club must be riding high on a wave of good form.

 

TEAM: Panter, Roff, Doireau, Rooke, Pratt, Kane, Buckle, Nightingale, McFeeley, Hudman, Lillington, Mbaraga, Bayston, Phillips, J Dodd.  SUBS: Beddows, Howland, Webb, Fisher, Brittain

Unfortunately for Broadstreet, the game fell sadly flat with no real continuity to back up some decent individual efforts and the performance never drifted into the realms of the 'Cup Final Atmosphere'.  Credit must go to the Sutton Coldfield Backs who seemed to have no trouble in defending the hard running of the likes of Ed Mbaraga and the game’s tempo seemed to be set completely by the positional kicking and organisation of Sutton Half Backs Ben Jones and Steve Piper.

Dan Kane and Matt Buckle had good games in the Back Row with a number of turnovers and tackles whilst Jamie Dodd at Full Back had a strong game and was always a potential threat (despite an absolute howler which handed Sutton their final Try).

Sutton exhibited their desire to win the game from the off and an explosive first few minutes saw them 10-0 up before most spectators had settled on the sideline with a pint. Broadstreet had little idea how to answer them and when the power running of Street’s gigantic Back Line failed to bear fruit, spectators had to endure more than twenty minutes of the game meandering around the Halfway Line.

Fly Half Steve Piper edged Sutton further in front with a penalty before a late burst from Broadstreet saw Matt Buckle grab a Try just before Half Time to give the Street boys a little momentum.

 

HT  7-13

Unfortunately for Broadstreet, despite a period of extended pressure the Sutton defence held firm and it was our own mistakes which were our eventual undoing.  Lax discipline compounded this when accurate Fly Half Piper managed to extend Sutton’s lead with two more penalties.  19-7

The straw which broke the camel's back was an unfortunate incident where a nothing kick into the Street 22 took an unfortunate bounce and completely wrong footed covering Full Back Jamie Dodd, he slipped on his Beyonce-shaped buttocks and chasing Winger Rayner collected it with ease and scored a bit of a farcical Try. 26-7

With the game lost, Jack Howland came on for Drew Hudman at Fly Half and with the last play of the game must have imagined that he was Jonny Wilkinson, slotting a long range Drop Goal to win the World Cup when reducing the Warwickshire 2nd XV Cup Final margin down to sixteen points.

 

FT 26-10

 

MOTM – Strong games from both Buckle and Kane in the Back Row

 

DOTD – Jamie Dodd

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Colts.  Broadstreet 10 – 17 Barkers' Butts RFC

With Barkers Butts traditionally being one of the strongest Colts sides in the Midlands and with Broadstreet Colts having a disastrous season with player numbers (Bl00dy Universities!), most of the Colts involved were not looking forward to the match at Training on Thursday night.

 

TEAM: Dalton, McCowat, Di Marco, Fisher, Masterson, Jones, Evans, Beddows, Murphy, Nailor, Ellis, Howland, Whitehouse, Price.  SUBS: Falcini, Kozlowski, Harvey,

Broadstreet got off to a flying start and spent the first ten minutes of the game in the Barkers Butts Half. This was converted into points thanks to a pin point long range pass from Jack Howland that found Winger Bradley Ellis in space on the left flank but with plenty of work to do. Nevertheless, Ellis took off and managed to burn his opposite number with apparent ease, the covering Full Back seemed to be able to cut off his run by using the angle however an extra kick from the Wing saw him cruise past that defender to loop round under the posts.  A fantastic exhibition of gas that was rounded off with a conversion by Jack Howland 7-0

Unfortunately for Broadstreet a brief rally from Barkers' set up some good field position and a complete misunderstanding of the word ‘drift’ meant that Street were unlocked by simple hands along the line and a Try for Wing Ajay Pallan. This was made worse when a speculative Up and Under from Barkers' Butts Centre Jacob Knight landed unclaimed in the Broadstreet 22, the Up and Under quickly turned into a chip and chase and Jacob Knight had no problems in winning the one man race as the ball bounced slowly over the Broadstreet Try Line. 10-7 to Barkers Butts as Broadstreet looked round to find out where their absent Full Back was.

Broadstreet rallied well after letting in two quick and entirely preventable Tries and earned two kickable Penalties which Jack 'The Boot' Howland stepped up to take.....and miss!

 

HT 10-7 Despite having control for extended periods of the Half, it was disappointing to go in losing by three at Half Time. However it was obvious to everyone that the game was there to be won.

After missing a third attempt at goal the normally reliable Jack Howland relinquished duties to Adam Nailor who had no problem slotting a 40 metre Penalty to open his account and bring Broadstreet level. 10-10

The inclusion of Dan Falcini at Half Time also had a fantastic effect as Broadstreet showed dominance in the Scrum, however the loss of Scrum Half and Captain Denis Murphy early in the First Half meant that Broadstreet’s Backs were not able to take much advantage of that power.  Barkers' on the other hand were able to exhibit some good patterns of play and it was from this interlinking of players that allowed Fly Half Ben Upton to slip through on a support line and score Barkers’ third Try.  Zak Whitehouse added the extras. 10-17

 

FT 10-17

Despite the devastating agony of having to lose to the Butts, Broadstreet did themselves proud in what retrospectively should be classed as a game lost by poor organisation and squeaky wheels rather than a lack of courage or enthusiasm.  But.....There is a strong crop of lads coming up from the Junior Section next year and we can be confident that the haphazard season the Colts have endured this year will be rectified.

 

MOTM – Bradley Ellis, a threat all game as well as scoring an excellent Try.

 

DOTD – Full Back Dan Price for making his way to the Subs Bench for a 'rolling sub' whilst Jacob Knight scored a Try where he should have been.

 

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1st XV.  Broadstreet 15 – 44 Rugby Lions RFC

Broadstreet hosted Rugby Lions in the Quarter Finals of the Warwickshire Cup on Tuesday after a number of postponements because of bad weather causing the match to be fitted in between league games.  This meant that neither side was willing to risk their standard 1st XV players with only Chris Dodd, Scott Harman, Tom Greevy and Liam McCrea having appeared in recent league games for Broadstreet.  Similarly, Rugby Lions had just Centre Harry Ellis, Hooker Dan Oselton, Prop Ben Nuttall and Flankers James Daniel and Beau Carney from their recent 1st XV side. 

 

Team: Panter, Roff, McCrea, Greevy, Pratt, Nightingale, Buckle, C Dodd, McFeely, Harman, Phillips, Lillington, Bayston, Duncan, Renard.  SUBS: Jones, Howland, J Dodd, Beddows

There were a number of 1st XV debutants for Broadstreet with 36 year old Al Panter (apparently sick before the game because of nerves!), Coventry University student Rory Lillington and Broadstreet M&J Connor McFeely.  Broadstreet struck first through the boot of Scott Harman but were only in front for a matter of minutes before Harry Ellis scored the game's first Try for the Lions. This was followed up with another Try from Rugby Lions to go 10-3 in the lead but a Broadstreet response through impressive debutant Rory Lillington and a Harman conversion meant that Street were back level. 10-10

Unfortunately Rugby Lions stretched this out with two more Tries before the Half and Broadstreet were trailing 10 - 20

 

HT 10-20

Unfortunately for Broadstreet the Second Half got away from them and the superior fitness of a 2nd XV comprising players who would walk into a number of National League 1st XVs (including our own) meant that we were easily stretched and put to the sword as the game wore on.  There was a small glimmer of light when Second Row Tom Greevy snuck round the base of a Ruck to convert a period of sustained possession and territory into points and make it 15-30.

However two more late Tries put a one sided slant on what had been an enjoyable and competitive match.

 

FT 15-44.  Hopefully, as Rugby Lions move up a league they’ll remember the competitive nature of the game and our 2nd XV will feature on their fixture list in the years to come. Some of the opposition (when they actually turn up!) on our current 2nd XV fixture list are doing nobody any favours.

 

MotM – Rory Lillington, solid debut against tough opposition

 

DotD – Scott Harman and Dan 'Chemo' Phillips, controversially awarded to be fair, but for not dealing with an initially aimless kick that led to conceding a terrible try.

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