Solid performance and a win against Chichester...
Match report author Paul Hickson is Partner at Seniors' sponsor Menzies. We are as ever hugely endebted for all his reports this season, as well as the continued support of Menzies.
There was a symmetrical end to the league season as our final opponents, Chichester had been our first way back in September. On that occasion we had lost 10-8 so apart from wanting to finish the season with a win there was unfinished business. However as if all that wasn't enough of an incentive it was also Jack Davison's final league match as club captain and no one wanted him to 'retire' with a defeat ringing in his ears.
In what was to prove to be a Davison afternoon the match had been preceded by a Club lunch during which Mags Davison was thanked for all her hard work as commercial manager of CSA during the initial two years. So there was something of a retirement theme to the proceedings as the match kicked off in glorious sunshine.
From the kick off Chichester retained possession and drove forward into Cobham's half and it was a full 8 minutes before Cobham got their hands onto the ball. When they did it it came as a something of a surprise especially for Billy Davison who intercepted found himself in space, possibly a bit too much space as far as he was concerned, so remembering that he isn't expected to run the length the pitch he off-loaded to Disco, although it didn't look like he wanted it that much either.
However whilst that move faltered Billy's next touch of the ball was on the burst to crash over for his first try of the season and with Tim Green converting Cobham were 7-0 up.
Like Cobham, Chichester are captained by their number 8, Moses Kasunjja and have a young team with many pupils from Chichester schools. They do however have a 38 year old prop with a judo background, who only took up rugby 2 years ago plus a couple of Fijian soldiers from the local barracks just to mix it up a little.
Just one place below Cobham in the league, they did not want to finish their season with a defeat so, stung by the try, Chichester launched an attack into Cobham territory which brought out the stiff defence we have seen from Cobham all season. Time and again Chichester were held up short of the line and even though Cobham lost Jamie Durward to a yellow card for a 'technical infringement' in the lineout, 14 man Cobham withstood the onslaught.
Against the run of play two penalties in quick succession from Tim Green provided Cobham with a cushion of 13-0 but it still needed some great covering tackles from Matt Johnson and Andy Alexander's 'exuberance' to create turnovers to keep Chichester at bay. It also needed stamina from both sides to finish the first half which lasted 47 minutes!
The second half started with a Cobham drive towards the Chichester line and it was an Andy Alexander textbook 'backhand offload' that set up another maul and a Chichester penalty for handling. Tim gratefully converted into points and at 16-0 Cobham were beginning to look as if they had done enough. However as we have seen in previous games at the Memorial ground the visitors like to score at the Clubhouse end and with their best backline move of the afternoon Chichester's number 13 ran in for try in the corner to make it 16-5. In trying to increase the lead Chichester suffered possibly the unluckiest conversion attempt of their season when the ball hit the cross bar twice before falling back on the wrong side.
With Chichester now resurgent Cobham supporters were concerned to see Captain Jack down with a head injury following a lineout clash. If we were concerned however that was nothing compared to what Dave Silver and Tom Schofield were thinking because our back row substitute Rob Frost was already playing for the AXV against London Welsh. Plucked from the match Rob allowed Jack to undergo running repairs.
Chichester were still pushing forward and it took a brave decision from the Ref to disallow a try as Cobham managed to hold the ball up. But now we had Captain Jack back on the pitch with his head taped up and the obvious intention of finishing his final match as Captain with a win. As if to order in the best backline move of the game set up by scrum half Will and with swift passing from Dan Taylor and Disco Kevin Fisher ran through under the posts for a great try to finish Cobham's season with a flourish. Tim converted to give a score line 23-5.
Chichester still had time to respond and following a yellow card for Matt Johnson (which prompted a furious response from Tom that he only gets yellow cards from refs because he is 'too quick and too good for the refs to understand what he is doing' ) they ran in a consolation converted try 23-12.
And with that there was the final whistle of the game and the season. Mags had received her bouquet, Billy had scored a try and Captain Jack had finished with a coveted win.
I have been challenged from the supporters on touchline to use suggested 'words' in the match reports this season to keep everyone alert and was given 'Ubiquitous' for this match. I didn't have a clue what it meant as I watched the match but the dictionary definition is 'existing or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; omnipresent'.
I don't think we could have come up with a better adjective than that to describe Captain Jack's efforts for the last 4 Seasons. Happy Retirement Jack.
