IC Rugby 1s Pipped to the post

On a balmy Wednesday afternoon, ICURFC travelled to the all weather pitch at Maidenhead RFC for a double header match against Reading Uni.

Top of the league Reading were always going to be a tough physical match, and playing it on the plastic grass pitch was only going to add to the drama and pace of this crucial game.

After a brief and intense warm up, IC kicked off. Captain Jack made the initial hit on the catching Reading player and drove him into the rubber crumb. Imperial held their ground for a couple of phases, however Reading looked good on the counter, and after an initial break were making good yards. An isolated Imperial munster runner had the ball tackled off him on the halfway line and Reading were away. Three quick passes and some pace on the wing put Imperial 5-0 down after five minutes. The conversion was close to the touchline and the kick was poor so the shellshocked Imperial kicked off again, only five points down.

This time the defence held firm for around fifteen minutes, with great work by Tom Chavas, knee chopping everything that dared run at him. New prop Pierre L’Bour was an inspiration in the front row, hauling his weighty frame around the park and doing all the donkey work asked of him. While relatively inexperienced in the dark art of the front row, he was still confident explaining to the ex-premiership referee what was happening, much to everyone else’s amusement.

At this stage in the game, neither team was making many yards as both defences remained firm; Imperial managed to stem the yards they were previously haemorrhaging until a scrum finally managed to unlock the Imperial back line. After the initial line break, the Reading backs flooded through, and touched down close to the posts. Luckily, the second kick was as bad as the first and so IC were only 10-0 down.

Reassuring words from Birkett in the huddle under the posts to stick to our guns, play pattern and remain calm were listened to. IC surged forward off the kick off, with many controlled short phases tiring the Reading defence before some sublime handling on the left wing by O’Connell and Floyd sent Syarif darting towards the try line. Hauled down five meters out, the Reading defence scrambled to slow the ball down, which meant George Lane, the boy from up North, had to do some rucking, for which he got kicked in the head. After checking that he hadn’t broken his eye socket like his hero, Chris McGeough, a quick dab of Vas and he was back in the game. In their desperate attempt to avoid conceding a try, the Reading flyhalf dove into from the side of the ruck and threw the ball away. The resultant penalty was kicked out on the five metre line. The always dominant lineout went up, and the maul went over the line with ease, L’Bour touching down a well deserved try, which Cox, on the wide angle, failed to convert.

With the momentum clearly on their side, Imperial received the kick off for the second half with practiced precision and restarted the pressure on the Reading defence. However, the advice to ‘keep calm’ at half time hadn’t been heeded by Floyd, who cynically stopped a Reading counterattack on the left flank with a deliberate knock on. An immediate yellow card left Imperial a man down in the backs. However this did not deter the forwards who continued to dominate the larger opposition pack with their sheer intensity. The pressure on the Reading defence built and built until eventually they cracked. With Coxy taking the ball to the line and drifting along the defence, Lane cut a hard line back and strolled through two poor attempts to tackle before putting the ball down under the posts. A simple conversion for Cox put Imperial in the lead by two points.

From the kick off, Reading camped in the Imperial 22 for 15 minutes before coming away with a penalty which put them in the lead.

With only ten minutes remaining, and a point down, Imperial threw everything they had at Reading. Hard yards gained by Hardisty and Flanagan, and the always impressive maul, which made 10-25 yards a time, kept Imperial within striking distance of the Reading line, but to no avail. After a turned over ball, Reading played out the last two minutes with pick and goes and the game ended with them a point up. The entire pack to a man excelled themselves, particularly Olisa Ufodiama who was at the bottom of everything, legally and illegally, like a good 6 should be.

By the end of the game, the ground was littered with Reading players, who admitted that Imperial were ‘one of the best drilled and hardest rucking teams’ they’d played against. Despite the loss, this was one of the gutsiest and best performances of the year and if they can string together a few more performances like this one, ICURFC will stay in Prem B, and deservedly so.