Westcliff 16 CS Rugby 1863 27

Pure theatre beside the seaside Nick Alway reports

The Stags enjoyed their trip to the seaside - or its hinterland at least - on the sort of warm October Saturday that now seems the norm this season. The entertainment even had elements of the end of the pier about it with both teams laying into each other - and I do not mean that in a nasty way at all - with all the enthusiasm of a Mr Punch and his good wife Judy. Both side's supporters in the animated postprandial balcony crowd engaged in lively but friendly banter : as much part of the show as the audience at any of those puppets' red and white striped booths, and they needed no professor to pull their strings .

The game started in what would for a puppet theatre be typically harum-scarum fashion with much rushing about and apparent industry interspersed with occasional moments of pure farce. And before too long the spectators had also identified and were applauding and encouraging their own stage heroes and villains.

It seemed as if CS were shading those early exchanges and it was no surprise when they took the lead through a Cameron Reid try from a maul. CS's hero, Captain Fantastic and hooker , Darryl Gore, stepped up to take his first pot at goal this season - the decision to assume the kicking duties himself having been forced on him by the previous week's dismal 0/6 success rate - and duly missed! If this was no real surprise in the script, what certainly was, was that the only additions to the scoreline by the interval should be a penalty goal apiece, with Darryl at least at last overcoming that apparent CS kicking hoodoo. CS had been marginally more the composed and threatening side initially, but things had swung round a little as the game progressed and, after a succession of CS infringements, our very own pantomime villain, Cameron Reed, had had to cop one for the team - attracting yellow after a succession of penalties had been awarded by the booth's vigilant policeman for killing the ball, side entry and the like as our hosts mounted a sustained assault on the CS try line on the half hour. That assault, however - despite the pleading, imploring and general good natured raucousness of the home crowd - still eventually yielded nothing more than that single penalty: 3-8 therefore at half time.

It was not long before Westcliff regained their numerical advantage, however, as fly-half Ali Smith was adjudged guilty of a high tackle and like Cameron before asked to leave the stage temporarily. You would not have found many takers for a bet on that pre-match but that's show business for you, even if Mrs Punch with her rolling pin could probably have done more damage! These were now extremely worrying times for the CS contingent, particularly as a Westcliff penalty had narrowed the gap to 6-8.

Palpitations were stilled , however, when the forwards decided that some more well organised trundling would do no harm and indeed there was every opportunity for them to do so with CS's own line out ball, in complete contrast to last week, very secure. Such a well organised driving maul from a lineout duly delivered a try for Captain Darryl and with his addition of the conversion there was now a margin of daylight between the teams at last.

That's the way to do it!!" Mr Punch, or was it Mike Lee, could be heard saying.

Westcliff were in no mood to throw in the towel and the show of course had to go on : a third penalty to them saw the gap cut to just six points again : 9-15. But that was as close as it now got : with the home side totally unable to gain any real line out possession themselves CS could play the territory game and even afford to kick the ball out at will. The forwards who had had matters pretty much under control all afternoon were determined to show they knew all their lines.

Two more tries from James Houston, the first a beauty from a set piece move straight off the training ground , the second from open play starting in CS's 22, and a conversion saw the score move on to 9-27 before a late Westcliff try and conversion brought the curtain down at 16-27 , those late home points at least reflecting rather more fairly Wescliff's contribution to the excellent matinee entertainment as a whole.

The Stags could enjoy their trip back a little more it seems than their journey there. Centre "PJ" Mitchell reflected the mood :" After a luxury coach tour through the centre of London and a short, sharp warm up we started how we always want to start, with intensity and pace. The pack put in an awesome shift for 80 minutes dominating the set piece, with the backs finishing opportunities when they came our way. It was a strong defensive performance all day which I think made the difference. The boys are very pleased to be back to winning ways."

After four successive defeats the CS Rugby show was indeed back on the road.

CS Rugby 1863 scorers:

Tries: Gore
Reed
Houston (2)

Pen Gore

Cons Gore (2)

Westciff web report Geoff Sawyer

This game started at high speed and continued that way for a while. Both sides attacked with intent and both sides went deep into their opponents half before the ball was cleared.
Jon Sigwart was outstanding at full back in thwarting one particular CS raid when he fooled two attackers near his line and raced away across and upfield.
CS 1863, the rebranded Civil Service RFC always looked dangerous and tested the Westcliff defence many times but a score would not come. At one time Westcliff's pack caught their opposite numbers cold in a scrum and wrecked their efforts. A relieving kick was charged down and CS had to touch down behind their line.
The visitors attacked again and managed to find a way through the determined defence for the first try, which went unconverted.
Westcliff's Ben McKeith, back from a business trip to riot-torn Greece was in excellent form and took a part in the long passing moved that just failed to bring his side a try. Back came the west London side and kicked a penalty from close in when Westcliff infringed.
Just before the break, Ben McKeith stepped up and slotted a pealty goal to make the turn-round score 3-8.
Ben McKeith stepped up to slot his second penalty goal for 6-8 and then CS tried a tactic they had not used much - the maul. They moved slowly closer to the Westcliff line and finally one of their men got over the line. the conversion made it 6-15.
Westcliff narrowed the gap with Ben McKeith's third penalty goal but CS opened it u again with a well worked try. The conversion hit the post and it was 9-20. The visitors now had their tails up even though they realised Westcliff were not easy to beat.
They engineered another try and the conversion made it 9-27. Westcliff then attacked again in lively fashion and this brought its reward when Dave Cosgrove beat the cover for a try which Ben McKeith converted. Neither side could score again before the final whistle.
Westcliff's director of rugby Bob Smith said: "The team is learning and developing all the time as they showed today." "Westcliff press officer Geoff Sawyer added: "The spectators were mightily impressed with the way the boys tackled a hard side. They did it with several key players missing and still managed to give Service a good game."
One curious fact came to light - in all five meetings with this opposition, they have scored 27 points