Following last weekend’s great away performance OC’s were aiming to follow up their good league form, with a win in the cup. This time at Battersea Ironsides, on a wet Saturday afternoon. A new look backline welcomed Ryan ‘Ayia’ Napper and Alex Verissimo to the starting line-up, with Joe Cobham made into a makeshift winger.
With revenge on the minds of a lot of the boys after a humbling preseason loss to the same outfit. OC’s started strong with big carries and a solid set piece, starving Ironsides of the ball. However a turnover from a knock on allowed Ironsides into the OCs half and after several phases, an overzealous OC’s defence gave away a cheap offside penalty near their own 22, giving Ironsides an easy 3 points. However that was to be the last time Ironsides entered the OC’s 22 for the rest of the half. As the team looked to stick to their strengths with strong scrums being rewarded with penalties, and constant line breaks from the likes of AOM, Angus and the dancing feet of Westy. OC’s were firmly camped in the Ironsides half, leading to a penalty for a ruck time infringement, which potter duly put in the corner. This resulted in a textbook Chris O’Malley rolling maul try from the lineout, as Ironsides had no answer for the drive. Unfortunately potter could make the extras and OC’s went into the half 5-3 up, an unflattering scoreline for the away side.
The second half started very much like the first with, Fred the Vet and AOM making yards at will. However due to overexcitement in trying to get the ball into Verissimos hands too early. Or score directly from every line break OC’s were unable to have their dominance converted into points. After a few strong words before a scrum, OC’s started to play more to the conditions and made a lot of ground from up the jumper rugby, before a simple 2m pick from Ladi resulted in the second try of the day, with no extras, 10-3 to the good. That would prove to be the last score of the day, as despite Battersea asking some questions towards the end of the game, they could find no way past the aggressive defence of OC’s.
Final score 10-3 and on to the next round of the cup.
