Arriving at KCH for the first league game of the season was a nervous moment for me and I was out injured! So I imagine the lads were feeling the pressure after such a good pre-season we were desperate to impress even though we were only at half strength.

I’m not sure who got the kick off as I was given the job to fill up the water bottles on this warm sunny day we were expecting a hard day’s work, I returned to see us pinned in our 22 so I’m hoping KCH kicked off!

We looked to be absorbing the attack well until a clearance kick gave KCH a lineout on the 22 and we had to deal with our first rolling maul of the season, unfortunately KCH seemed well drilled at this and Brocks forwards struggled to get organised as they took a slow trundle up to the try line and got the ball down over the try line. A missed conversion attempt made it 5-0.

KCH were very well drilled in the scrum and with a heavier pack even the most experienced of us struggled, luckily our open play defence was brilliant and with good organisation and energy we were able to score many a turnover and when we did attack KCH struggled to let go after tackles giving us a few penalties here and there.

Mogley’s cracking kicking and solid forward work in open play allowed us to pin KCH in their 22 for quite some time, unfortunately the ref’s 5 minute break to remove fox droppings from the field (we couldn’t find a big enough bag to fit Fletch in) was enough to shake our focus and a poor lineout followed by clearance kick allowed KCH to relieve the pressure… Never fear! Jack Hunt had it and was looking to counter by opening the game up with a beautiful spinning pass across the field unfortunately he made the mistake of sending it as he stepped on the half way line, this allowed the eagle eyed ref to see just how exceedingly level the pass was as Mogley collected just shy of the 10! Still, it looked good!

KCH pushed forward quick and with the brocks lineout falling to pieces they took advantage putting us on the back foot, however we had clearly had enough and we took a great scrum against the head giving Chris Orford an opportunity to put in a booming kick and getting us back into their 22 where we decided to abandon jumping in the lineout and just hit KCH hard as they landed, this seemed to work well as Brock’s made ourselves such a nuisance in the next 3 lineouts they knocked on 3 times! This eventually got us a scrum 5 and KCH a ticking off for a few dodgy defending tricks that had kept us off the scoreboard.

Could brocks score before halftime! No! A combination of a lack of support and the refusal to take the ball out of the tight meant that despite solid pressure Alex Wynne-Williams was just kept out and pinged for holding on with some impressive work by the KCH number 7.

Halftime…

KCH came out of the break with plenty of energy but we absorbed and had a scrum just inside our 22 to relieve pressure, however KCH choose this moment to put our new front row (Marc Huxted at Loose and John Fabian at Tighthead) in their place and they quickly wheeled us more than 90 degrees, John Fabian’s side was the one that went back and he must have been angered by this because after a short pep talk from Michael Fletcher he then returned to make a balloon animal out of his opposition prop, the next 3 scrums KCH didn’t stand a chance! Unfortunately John took an injury on an early engage by KCH and had to go off but it was some of the best scrum work we’ve seen from him yet and we look forward to him improving this season…

KCH decided to keep it in their backs for a bit and moved it from wing to wing very well, they eventually got their overlap and went for the line at which point Alfie Lisle made an excellent try saving tackle which we recovered and got ourselves back to the halfway line in a promising attack, a kick and a great chase by James Huxted and Jack Hunt allowed us to cause a knock-on and there was a general feeling this was our time to strike… Unfortunately because we had a new back line that hadn’t really had time to gel there was some confusion in a move and their 7 (who can either out sprint Usain Bolt or was ridiculously offside) nicked and ran another score for KCH in… Kick nailed 12-0, ten minutes to go

Fired up by the feeling we had just been robbed of our best chance of the game Brocks came out the traps firing on all cylinders, a probing run by Mogley, a great lineout and some solid backs moves breaking the gain line every time put us in a position to strike… Michael Fletcher then struggled with the lineout and decided to run offside BEFORE the throw had even left the hookers hand and then put in an excellent dramatic performance of shock when the ref blew the whistle as he joined the forming maul from their side.

Refusing to let this set us back a big hit allows us to turnover and Mogley does 3 defenders and spins the ball wide to Danny and with quick hands we moved it to Alfie and onto Jack who put in a cracking kick but didn’t quite have the gas to chase it so James Huxted took over and we had the ball on their tryline again, unbelievably the KCH 7 was there once again and somehow won a penalty!

We recovered and took another pop at the chip which Ben Harris chased down and with some neat hands got the ball to Mogley who finished by beating 2 defenders and crashing over, kicked his own conversion to make it 12-7…

We tried our best to move up the field but we had left it too late and when a player grabbed Blunden’s feet he reacted poorly right in front of the ref who was apparently so fuming he dealt a red card and blew the final whistle! Some might say a little bit harsh as Blunden was only trying to get free… hmm oh well someone will have to teach Blunden to keep his temper under control after all what’s to be angry about! he’s off to New Zealand any day now!

Great progress lad’s to go to KCH with a half strength team and push the game that tight was impressive! Captain’s comment for the game “Boys good game, we have to keep training as a unit! Their number 7 kept us out and we can’t allow one player to be so disruptive going forward” Captain’s MOTM Mogley