Ealing B Festival 14/10/2007

This was our first visit to this large festival – Ealing host an A and B festival in parallel.

We were in the B festival, sharing a small pool with Richmond and Harpenden.
Our first game was against Richmond, and it seemed that too many of our squad had stayed up late the night before to watch England beat France in the World Cup semi-final. We were slow and sluggish; Richmond drove us off the ball in 4 scrums in the first half, and stole the ball from the rucks that we set up. Things improved a little in the second half, and we started asserting ourselves in the scrums (though not winning the ball) and driving over in the rucks. On the positive side, our tackling was good, and Richmond beat us by only 2 – 0 (they went on to win the final, beating Ealing 6 – 1).
There was a long gap before the next game, and we used the time profitably in practising scrums, rucks and (against all received wisdom) mauls. It paid off. In the first half of the game against Harpenden we won our first scrum of the day, and followed it up by turning over the ball in a ruck. Tries by Aaron (a lightning-fast strike down the wing) and Jack (a Chabal-like charge through the middle of the Harpenden pack) saw us take the lead. In the second half we managed to hold on to our lead in a strong defensive effort that included pushing Harpenden 25 metres up the pitch in a maul that they had set up. Final result 2 – 1 to Teddington.
Our last game was against Bank of England, who were second-placed in the other pool (they had beaten Ruislip and Grasshoppers by sizeable margins). We started strongly, with improving scrummaging, rucking and mauling, but BoE got the first try. Jack managed to get one back before half time and another in the second half. BoE made a determined attempt to level up, and although Teddington were hot and tired they managed to hold the defensive line and the game finished with the score at 2 – 1, putting Teddington in 3rd place overall. Medals were awarded to the top three places, so the boys came away with a memento for their efforts.
In summary, a good day – not only a satisfactory result in a festival, but also a day in which the team learnt some important lessons about support and working together in rucks and scrums.
And finally, it was Jordan’s first festival, and he didn’t disgrace himself at all – hopefully the start of a successful rugby career.
The team:
Sam Barton
Nick Furrer
Tom Griffiths
Aaron Patel
Thomas Bywater
Jordan Wilson-Pearce
Greiogair Hogg
Jack Stockham
Toby Orchard
Jonty Carpenter
Ollie Skyrme
James Doyle

Report by Heini Furrer