Another Victory for All Stars

The All Stars notched up their second victory of the season albeit rather fortuitously.

The problems started when only 13 players found their way down to deepest darkest Surrey. Also for those townies amongst us, Tim Davey, Matt Parker and Andrew Le Petit, the exposure to this amount of fresh country air made us feel slightly uneasy!!

Fortunately Haslemere had a few reserves and kindly offered the services of two of their players. So Cobham had a scratch XV together and began to focus on the game ahead.

The game kicked off and a scrappy encounter ensued from the start. Both sides failed to maintain any control on the game and any odd break from either side was very quickly snuffed out by strong defence from both sets of players. The Cobham forwards failed to give much quality ball to the Cobham backs and were shown a lesson by the Haslemere pack about how to ruck and maul. However Paul Brookes and Mark Taylor managed to break the gain line every time they received good ball from Mark 'Teflon (some things never change)' Alexander who stepped manfully out of semi-retirement and straight into the No.10 shirt due to Pete Bartlett's GPS system going on the blink.

A pretty uneventful first half finished 0-0. Jim Barnett arrived for the team and after a comical debate with Yatesy, came on at half time (against the surgeon's advice) and gave the Cobham pack much needed impetus. And in the first 5 minutes a great move from Tim Yates, Calum (sorry don't know your surname), Brooksey and Mark Taylor almost set up a first try for the All Stars.

From then on, much of the second half was played in Cobham's half but the strong defensive display continued and everyone put their bodies of the line, some more than intended eh Drew!?!?!

It was during this period of pressure though that Cobham scored their first try. With Haslemere in possession, the Cobham defence pressed hard and caused a fumble from the Haslemere backs which allowed our 'Haslemere borrowed' player to run from the Cobham 22 to score under the post. Brooksey convert 7-0.

Haslemere came back at Cobham again and some fantastic last ditch tackles from Matt Parker playing at full back, Mark Taylor and Yatesy kept our lead intact. Then with around 5 minutes remaining, after grossly misjudging an interception chance a few moments earlier, Paul Brookes broke out of the defensive line to grab a loose Haslemere pass and run away to the try line to wrap up the game. He converted his own try and Cobham held on for a very hard fought 14-0 win.

Well done to everyone for a fantastic defensive display. Although maybe next week we might actually create our own chances rather than relying on the opposition.

Man of the Match: Great performances from Yatesy, Matt Parker in defence and Calum but for his try, two conversions and great defensive hits, Paul Brookes gets it this week.

Report from Andrew LePetit