Wasps 'A' 15 - 20 Finchley Greens

On a mild Sunday morning, Finchley Under 11’s Green squad headed along the North circular to play against London Wasps. This had always been a tough fixture in the past with Finchley normally losing the encounter but there was an air of confidence in the camp this time round having been undefeated in all fixtures so far this season. A squad of 16 players assembled, Bert Edwards was unavailable due to illness and Oliver Cheesman was a no-show. Robbie Melling was making his debut for the Greens.

There was a short, joint warm-up with Wasps before play commenced. It was decided to play Wasps ‘A’ squad twice rather than play 1 match against their B’s.

Wasps kicked off into the wind in the first half, Finchley tried to punch their way through a pretty solid Wasps defence to no avail. It was when Finchley started to pass the ball out along the back line that Max Johnston was able to show his pace and score the opening try in the corner. Some great last ditch tackles by Wasps meant they kept the score to 0-5 at half time.

In the 2nd half Wasps had the wind behind them and were starting to show what they were capable of and eventually equalised after a good passage of play. Finchley piled the pressure on and spent most of the time in Wasps half. Wasps kept kicking their way out of trouble and it was in the last minute of the game when they kicked deep leaving Alfie chasing back, with several wasps players breathing down his neck he had no choice but to carry the ball over his own line to touch down. It was from the resulting scrum that Wasps scrambled over in the corner to seal the victory.

Final Score Wasps 10 – 5 Finchley

A quick team talk to rebuild the confidence and explain it was only really half time and that the next try would be the most important seemed to do the trick. Finchley took the field and kicked off into the strong wind. Taidgh O’Flynn who was having a great day at scrum half passed out from a ruck, and with some good unselfish passing the ball found its way to piettro who finally got a well-deserved try after having been stopped short on several occasions. All square!
Wasps again with the wind behind them were happy to kick away possession, Finchley were happy to counter attack but were unable to breach the Wasps defence again before half time. Wasps had tackled well, although a lot of their tackles were a bit on the high side and I’m sure this is something they will need to sort out. It was one of these marginally high tackles that denied Owen Sexton a try just before half time, as referee I had to make one of those awkward decisions, do I give my own team a penalty try ? A decision to give a 5m scrum to Finchley seemed the obvious answer!

Half time Wasps 0 – 5 Finchley

Finchley kicked off for the second half and immediately Wasps put themselves under pressure as they passed forward. Finchley kept themselves in the Wasps half and the ball was fed out to Harry Brunning who skipped passed the covering defence and even a last ditch tackle in the corner was unable to stop him dotting down, not bad for a lad who had never played rugby before the start of the season. Wasps worked hard to get back into the match and were finally rewarded when one of their big forwards squeezed through a gap in the defence to score, hurting himself in the process. Finchley kept going forward and after some good mauling and recycling it was Adam Bell who drove over for the match winning try. With less than a minute left to play Finchley held on to claim a well-deserved victory.

Full time Wasps 5 – 15 Finchley

Every single member of the 16 player squad can take credit for this win, the backs rarely missed a tackle all day, the forwards worked hard and got around the field to help out at the break down. Finn Campbell made some ferocious tackles with less fear than a crash test dummy, maybe we’d be more suited to Volvo for a sponsorship deal!!! Robbie had a tremendous debut and seems certain to become a regular in the squad. Adam, Oli and Cameron also fitted in seamlessly when they came on. At the start of the morning I asked the players to play with courage, confidence and commitment and to show great character, they certainly did and we can now look forward to the new year with anticipation of even better results.

This weeks lollies must have tasted really sweet!!!

Next match: Sunday 13th January, Saracens (away)

Mick