Coaches Corner - January 23rd

Hello everyone, I hope people have had a good week and are looking forward to this weekend’s rugby.Before we take a look at this weekend's match against Hemel, let’s reflect back on last week's strong performance against London Irish Wildgeese.

To bounce back from the previous week’s disappointment to secure a 20-15 win was a testament to the character and quality of this Beaconsfield 1st XV. We faced a markedly improved Geese side from when we visited them earlier in the season, notably their winger and 15 who had not played in the reverse fixture were lively throughout and caused us plenty of problems. The game started fairly evenly with both teams enjoying some possession and the kickers trading penalties, then we opened up and demonstrated our attacking prowess. Launching off a scrum with Joey Thomas hitting a strong line and getting us over the gain line our backs worked round the corner and Aled showed astonishing hands (which surely puts him in contention for a Wales Six Nations call up) to set Revill and Mark off up the touchline. They executed a 2v1 in the 5m channel with the kind of quality execution that we lacked in our game against Grasshoppers. Following that we went into a period of strong defence. Our patience and tackle execution was excellent and this was a theme throughout the game. Geese eventually scored and then our star winger Tyson produced a bit of magic. Getting the ball on the wing around halfway the human train proceeded to smash and wrestle his way through multiple defenders to score in the corner. When Tyson is in full flight he is awesome to watch and we are privileged to have him at our club. He really is a difference maker at this level.

I highlight these two tries because in different ways they were excellent in their own right. I, like our supporters, want our team to play exciting high quality rugby and it gives me a lot of joy when we produce moments of that quality. The rest of the game was a good contest moving back and forwards between the 22’s. There were close moments where the referee intervened and opportunities missed for both teams but we were able to close the game out to record a double of wins over the Irish. A special mention to the forwards and our coach Lee Goodall who yet again produced a scrummaging performance the belied the comparative size of the pack and an improved lineout performance that created plenty of attacking opportunities.

A final mention to Tom Rendell, who was voted man of the match. I challenged him before the game to make three dominant hits in the game. I think he surpassed that within the first three minutes and went around like a man on a mission dominating collisions and really impacting the game. It is excellent to now see Tom coming through as one of our most effective players and he still has so much unfulfilled potential. It is exciting to think about what we could become with him in the side over the next few years.

So attention turns to today’s game against Hemel Hempstead. Originally a reserve weekend, we are having to play as the original fixture could not go ahead due to our ground conditions. Both sides tried their best to get the game on but unfortunately it was not to be. The impact of playing on reserve weekends is that we know we will be missing players who plan things in based on those weekends not having a fixture. Although we will miss players of the calibre of Braiden and Tom Rendell it does present opportunities for others to show what they can do and hopefully after the game we will have a greater depth of players we know can come in and make an impact.

We are delighted that we welcome our influential prop, Rafe back into the side and there are opportunities for Matt Holyland and Joe Waller to show what they can do. Our regular scrum half Barney Howells has now set off on his travels to Australia so we will look to shift Aled into 9 and Joey Thomas will stake a claim to be our regular 10 for the rest of the season. We all know the qualities Joey can bring and i’m looking forward to seeing him drive our team around the park.

Hemel will prove tough opposition, they will be keen to bounce back from a tough loss against HAC last week and show how competitive they can be in this league. They have some big ball carriers both in their forwards and backline and our defence will need to be at its best to stop their momentum.

The recent weather conditions means that we have a second rearranged fixture this weekend where our 2nd XV take on Henley. Henley are runaway leaders in their league and this will be a tough fixture for our lads. The potential of them missing some players will hopefully create some opportunities for our lads to get into the game and show they can compete with a team whose 1st XV operate two leagues above ours. The 2nd XV have been doing really well over recent weeks. A strong performance away at Newbury secured an important five league points. Last week they travelled to Crowthorne who had pulled out of the league earlier in the season. Crowthorne are desperately trying to rebuild and are trying to play their original fixtures as friendlies. Credit to our boys who were willing to head over to their place to play a game of rugby. The game cannot solely be about winning and where you finish in a league and to help a local club that is experiencing a period of difficulties is a credit to them. We received some very kind words from Crowthorne about the spirit in which our 2nd XV approached the game and we wish them all the best in resurrecting their side ahead of next season.

As always there are so many great things going on at our club it’s impossible to mention everything and everybody but we should all be proud of the work going in across the board to provide a great rugby experience to so many in our local community.

I look forward to seeing plenty of you at the club on Saturday as you show your support for our senior men’s teams.

Russ