RSM regain The Bottle in emphatic style

The Bottle Match was the decisive game for the Royal School of Mines. Win and R.S.M. would boast a 5-3 victory over their bitter rivals Camborne School of Mines following wins in golf, netball, squash and women’s hockey. Lose and the weekend of fixtures would be drawn at four apiece. None of the R.S.M. faithful would be content with sharing the spoils with C.S.M., especially if it meant losing out on the Bottle for the second year running.

Among the opening exchanges, the R.S.M. team which, have only a few weeks to prepare, much like a Barbarians team, looked assured and confident against their opposition who play together weekly. The pressure that R.S.M. applied was telling and after being camped within the C.S.M. 22 for a number of phases with both forwards and backs making good headway, the ball was played down a narrow blind side where Charlie Esberger, a third year materials student, bounced over for the first try of the match. C.S.M. however, did not take this score lying down and hit back with a penalty of their own, narrowing the gap to just two points before man of the match Olly Cox, who gave up a career in modelling to come study rocks and the like at Imperial, scored a second try for the R.S.M. increasing the score to 10-3. C.S.M. mounted a fight back scoring two tries neither of which were converted to lead 13-10. Their second try exploited an overlap on the blind side allowing an overgrown C.S.M. second row, who had had some kind of accident with hair dye resulting in a orange barnet, shrugging off the attentions of Jack Judd, allowing him to score.

The R.S.M. were not beaten and from this point onwards they controlled the game. In the forwards Jamie Allridge and Joe Franklin both performed well either side of Joe ‘the throw’ Macdonald who, it must be said, lived up to his moniker. Ben Moorhouse, provided a good option at the front of the lineout whilst the back row of Ed Vaughn, James Scaife and Caolan Cotter were dynamic around the park. George Lane provided a useful option in the centre whilst captain Fraser James was often seen coming up into the back line looking for line breaks. It was however, outside centre Ben Adubi, currently studying a Masters in ‘Rocks, Energy and Finance’, who swallow dived over to bring R.S.M. back in front. This try was duly converted by fly-half Rob Dowden who added a penalty before substitute Ben Foss crashed over to make the game safe for the R.S.M. Although C.S.M. were able to score a consolation try, it wasn’t enough and as the final whistle blew the supporters and revellers alike, swarmed the pitch in a euphoric and often drunken state to celebrate. Afterwards James commented; ‘It feels great to win back the Bottle. It’s where it belongs now and we’re not going to give it up without a fight again.’