Saturday 17th October 2009
Old Tiffs 1st XV vs Haslemere
Old Tiffs 2nd XV vs London Media
Saturday was a remarkable day for a number of reasons.....
- Old Tiffs 2nd XV made a long awaited return after an absence of some 18 months and came back in style with a hard fought victory
- Paul Ronsisvalle scored his first ever try (in any form of rugby ever) at the age of 30 years and 8 months. He is a winger
- Ted Sutton managed to play at hooker and on the wing at the same time and appeared quite good at it
- Old Tiffs scored a try from a cross field kick - and meant it
The day kicked off at 12.00 with players turning up in numbers not seen since Narration played their latest sell out gig - 30. TRJ got off his sick bed and Narration donated 50% of their fan base - a world Gurning Champion and a smelly kickboxer - to enable the Mighty Two's to play a game for the first time since 2007.
An incredibly spirited display by all involved together with an exhibition of line out throwing from Ted Mark 1 and lineout jumping from the Gurner and Garlic man meant the Mighty Two's much anticipated return to the field was to winning ways. They dispatched a much bigger London Media team by 12 points to 11 with the forwards really fronting up - the defence was immense. The backs too were not shy in making the odd hit or two - especially in the centre. In fact, at one point during the second half one of the oppositions centres asked Sam Tiernan if he was aware the game was only a friendly!!
The golden moment came midway through the first half. Some good forward drives helped set up a position deep inside the London Media half. The ball was moved down the short side and some deft hands from the ever green Fenti put Paul Ronsisvalle clear. Paul very nearly failed to ground the ball and at the time I remember thinking that he made a bit of a meal of it - this was explained when it was revealed that the try was his first ever. Paul clearly had no idea what to do once he got over the line as he had never done it before.
Tiffs scored the winning try early in the 2nd half when Bungle collected the ball deep inside his own half, beat three players, chipped over another two and then beat both wingers for pace to score the best try ever seen in the British Isles. This gave Tiffs a lead of 12-11 which they held onto - despite some strong pressure from LM - for a well deserved victory. I would just like to add that the support from the touchline from the 1st team was invaluable. They could not have been quicker to get water and medical equipment onto the pitch and it didn't go unnoticed.....!!
So, the Old Tiffs rugby extravaganza moved onto the main event - Old Tiffs v Haselmere in Surrey 3. Tiffs fielded a very strong looking line up and were lead admirably, in the absence of club captain Henry Nava, for the first time by Alex Turner. From the outset it was apparent that despite being much the smaller side, all the quality was with Old Tiffs. Two very well worked tries saw Tiffs race into an early 14 - 0 lead and this never looked like being relinquished.
The Front row coped well against a big front five, as did the now formidable 2nd row pairing of Alex and Donald. Despite playing 20 minutes each in the 2nd team game Jamie and Ben were all over the pitch and together with man of the match Barry Gibbs the back row were simply too quick and too strong for Haselmere.
The backs looked dangerous whenever they had space. Matt orchestrated them superbly - and kicked impressively as usual - bringing both Nick and Sam onto the ball to constantly run hard and regularly break the opposition line. The centres also dealt well with Haselmeres main threat - their 18 stone Orc playing in the centre. Tom Rich made an impressive debut on the wing and Fenti was still the quickest man on the pitch at the ripe old age of 39. Hookey made his first appearance of the season at full back and was as dependable as ever.
Tiffs scored regularly throughout the match with some well worked tries from both forwards and backs. However, the crowning moment came 5 minutes from the end when Tiffs won a scrum in the opposition 22 on the far left side of the pitch. Andy picked the ball up from the back and immediately sent over an Elissade-esque cross field kick with pin-point accuracy. Even more remarkably, Fenti caught it to score one of finest tries seen at the Grist Memorial ground for many years. It capped an all round excellent performance and despite making a number of errors Old Tiffs ran out comfortable winners by 52-5.
All in all it was an excellent day for the club - lets hope it is a sign of things to come.
Bungle
RFU.com 
Search
