The Oaks travelled to Sutton & Epsom for the first time. Greeted by glorious sunshine the Oaks settled in to the new venue well. Unfortunately 2 clubs had pulled out, so their only opponents were the hosts and Battersea Ironsides. The coaches decided that each team would play each other twice, game on!
First up were the Ironsides who, having just played their first game, had tired legs. The Oaks launched into the lead with 2 great straight running tries from Tom ‘the Jackal’ Hyde and a couple of jinking runs leading to tries by Hamish ‘Lightening’ McQueen and Lars ‘but not least’ Hansen. At half time it was 4-0. The platform created by the forwards was awesome with some great rucking by Gerran ‘the Red Dragon’ Prescott in particular. After another try by Tom shortly after the whistle and 2 by Lars, the Oaks decided to even the game a bit taking the 2 hat-trick players off the pitch. This evened up the play a bit, but the Oaks still kept up the pressure with Benji ‘the Barrel’ Collingwood barrelling over for 2 tries and Hamish taking the final score to 10-0.
Sutton & Epsom had rested, whilst the Oaks were straight back on the field for the next game. Sutton had watched the Oaks, so were more prepared for the onslaught. However, they just couldn’t keep pace with the strength of rucking. Sammy ‘the Tiger’ Tansley, one of our utility players, showed some immense bravery clearing the bigger players out of the ruck. The Oaks were 4-0 up at half time after Kyle ‘the Style’ Cameron had shown everyone a clean pair of heels and Gerran had spun over the line for a Taulupe Faletau-like score. S&E came back stronger in the second half, but just couldn’t keep up with the fantastic support play shown by the Oaks. Both Harry ‘the Belgium Bomber’ Bouverie and Joel ‘the Bullet’ Walter were on the shoulders of their team mates going over for another 2 tries. The final score was 7-0.
After a break, it was ground hog day as the Ironsides took to the pitch again. However, it wasn’t a repeat performance, as they came out much more aggressively and started to win the rucks against an Oaks team who had taken their eye off the ball. The Oaks had been practising their cross field kicks in the break and a call from Hamish from one side of the pitch to Will ‘Zig-zag’ Brooke, resulted in an All-Black style kick from Hamish and a great catch by Will who ran over for a glorious score. S&E came back hard and scored twice with their winger running round the Oaks back line. The score at half time was 2-2. A much better contest than earlier. After their half team talk, the Oaks committed to get to the rucks first. Edward ‘the Tank’ Thompson led from the half time whistle with a fantastic chase and tackle. The rest of the team rallied round and maintained possession for most of the second half. Hamish scored his hatrick and the Oaks pulled away to a 6-2 win.
Sutton & Epsom spotted their chance with the Oaks running low on battery. However, the Oaks dug in and kept S&E in their own half. Joel stepped into scrum half on one play, threw an enormous dummy sending all the black and white shirts the wrong way. He then dodged his way over the line to make the half time score 2-0 to the Oaks. The forwards, led by Sammy and Benjy stepped up their aggression winning countless rucks and rips in the mauls. Will commanded the backs at fly half drawing S&E in and then releasing the speedsters Tom and Lars, who both went over again for tries. Another of our utility players, Harry, was all over the pitch again rucking everything that stood in his way. This enabled a great backs move to end off the match with the ball going down the line, Joel straightening with a perfectly timed pass for Kyle to go over in the corner. Final score was 5-1 to the Oaks. A fantastic display of running rugby!