In a tight contest at The Slade, Oaks Academy continued their annual tradition of playing a final friendly fixture with players exclusively selected from their U17 age group.
The last time the majority of these players all played in the same team, it was in Oaks' solitary win in last season's U16 Kent League vs Westcombe Park. The challenge in the post-match huddle that day had been simple....constant improvement!
This was in evidence as an Oaks side missing 4 of their gun U17 players stepped up magnificently against a TJs Colts B side who will be kicking themselves for not being more clinical when they were on top at the back end of the 1st half.
TJs came out of the blocks quickly and scored an early converted try to bring some life out of an Oaks side who have always been a little guilty of starting slowly. Oaks responded with a turnover from the kickoff, which was then recycled through several phases resulting in a kickable penalty for fly half and captain, George Rehbein.
Fast forward several minutes and Oaks milked another penalty. A well executed two phase scrum strike had given Oaks go forward down the left, before TJs were penalised for a high tackle in the midfield on the Oaks carrying pod. Rehbein had his kicking boots on and Oaks were right back in it at 7-6.
Academy u17s 12-6 down at HT
In typical Oaks fashion, the exit was somewhat panicked and TJs took full advantage from the ensuing close range scrum. Their 12 carried powerfully to drag Oaks tacklers over the line with him and take TJs in at halftime 12-6 up.
Oaks knew that their best avenue into leading the game was in maintaining their discipline. The referee was (rightly) very hot on tackle height and this was one area where Oaks seemed to have the ascendency. TJs' discipline was their undoing as Oaks were gifted field position. Despite botching the initial strike, Oaks still manged to break the line as centre Tait Anderson powered through three separate tacklers before being pulled down just outside the hosts' 22. The ball was worked coast to coast as prop, Gurvan Ollivier, showed fantastic feet to punch through the middle before Rehbein threw a beautiful pass over the top to winger, Joe Strebel. Strebel still had plenty to do, but he used his power well and carried TJs over the line with him for Oaks' 1st try of the game. Never in doubt, Rehbein nailed the touchline conversion and suddenly, Oaks were 12-13 up. Another Rehbein penalty several minutes later really ramped up the pressure on the home side who were now 12-16 down despite having been the more dangerous of the two teams for much of the game.
TJs' desperation to finish with a win fuelled them as they constructed a powerful driving maul from around 20 metres out to go back into the lead at 17-16 with around 15 minutes still to play.
Oaks quickly responded with a powerful close range try of their own as a botched TJs exit was brutally punished by an increasingly confident visiting team. Rehbein couldn't miss and maintained his 100% kicking record on the day to take Oaks into a 17-23 lead with just over 10 mins left on the clock. Once again, TJs responded almost immediately as a sloppy Oaks exit gifted them possession from close range, which they converted into another score. Crucially however, the conversion was missed and Oaks still led 22-23 with 5 minutes left to play.
One only had to watch Oaks' defence in these closing minutes, with the game in the balance, to see an example of the improvement within the group. TJs had two close range mauls from which they played varied attacking rugby as they searched for the winning score. Whereas in times gone by, this Oaks group would almost have settled for being plucky losers, there was an energy and intensity in their defence that clear for all to see. This meant that when TJs made the decisive error and put what could have been the scoring pass behind their winger, he was unceremoniously bundled into touch as he tried to regather. Oaks secured the lineout and fittingly it was Rehbein who hammered the ball into Tonbridge park for a deserved win. 22-23.
There are still huge areas of improvement for this group as they push to represent the academy 1st XV next season. What they demonstrated in this game however, was a pride in performance that will make them much harder to beat than in previous seasons. Combined with some quality players from the current U16s, plus the usual new recruits that a club of Oaks' size always enjoys and they undoubtedly be looking to cement their place within the top 3 sides in the county next year.
Squad list : Hermann Waschefort, Yiannis Papadopoulos, Gurvan Ollivier, Callum Le Roux, Max Baker, Ben Shelley, Ben Thomson, Tom Kerton, Toby Shrimpton, George Rehbein (C), Joe Strebel, Charlie Vowls, Tait Anderson, Preston Williams, Arthur Luboinski
Subs : Will Blackmore, James Banks
MoM Tait Anderson