Saturday 30th brought a local rivalry and important lower-end of the table clash as Old Colfeians travel to the War Memorial ground to play Dartfordians. A couple of changes from the win against Old Tiffinians, with Charlie Baker, Harry Taylor and Leo Cunningham coming into the side. Ocs were also buoyed by the return of Chris Harris, who despite still being registered at the club, has been playing his rugby socially at Blackheath this season.
Ocs started slowly with a smart chip over the top from the Darts fly half being regathered by the 10 and leads to their back row player to go under the sticks 5 mins in. Other than Colfeian dominance in the scrum, there was not too much to shout about in the first half. Ocs error count was high and penalties seemed to come at practically every play. This was the theme for the first hour of the game, Ocs penalties resulting in a frustrating and stop start first half of the game. During this period, credit to Darts who scored a couple of well-worked breaks and punished Ocs for their discipline and sloppy kick chase. The first half ended with the score 21-5 with Ocs up against it.
The start of the second half threatened to be much of the same. With a strong away following left frustrated by the stop-start nature of the game and Ocs continuously infringing leading to 2 yellow cards. Darts kicked one of these penalties to take the score to 24. What followed was a 20 mins in which Ocs finally got a foothold in the game and totally dominated. Ocs scored 2 quick and well-worked tries through Andy O’Malley and Freddie Holland-Oliver, and it really should have been a couple more but for some questionable execution from the Ocs backs.
Despite being down for 14 men most of the second half, Ocs showed their structure caused threats across the pitch with strong carries through the middle by the likes of Conor Gray and Charlie Baker. This resulted in a very tight finish to the game, with Tom Rameuax showing the backs how to finish, crossing the whitewash with the clock in the red. Unfortunately the conversion was pulled slightly to the left to prevent the comeback salvaging a draw. The full time score ending 24-22 to Dartfordians
Given Ocs only decided to stop giving away needless penalties and to play some rugby for the last 20 minutes or so, it would have been some what of an injustice to salvage the draw – credit to Darts for being the better team on the day, and we look forward to welcoming them to Horn Park so we can right a few wrongs from a frustrating day.
Ocs come away with 2 points from the day, which may prove to be important at the end of the season. We look ahead knowing a win against Gravesend next week becomes all the more important.
MOTM – Victor Spaczil
