Harpenden 109 - St. Sever 0

And so the final leg of Sticky Johnson’s fun-packed jamboree begins. The last opponents of the tour are very much an unknown. Once again we are pleasantly surprised by the standard of the facilities, this time in the small town of St Sever. Small town, small players, as we find out when the teams run out. The opposition today is a bit of a mixture with a couple of players two years under our boys.

From the kick off it is clear that Harps are not going to be tested to the same extent as they were yesterday as St Sever struggled to recycle the ball from the catch but managed to clear the ball to the Harps 10m line. Tour debutante Zac Kent, fresh from his geography field trip, claimed clean ball in the middle of the lineout and flipped the ball back to Singo who made a break, the pack recycled the ball and worked the ball down the blindside into the St Sever 22m line. The backs ran a miss move to Gus Williams coming in from the blindside and winger Dougie Norris ran in at the corner for a try that Jimmy Speirs converted with a steepling kick from the touchline. After three minutes Harps had taken a 7-0 lead.

Rui Caetano claimed the ball from the kick off and found Jimmy Speirs who drove towards halfway. Scrappy ball was cleaned up by Courteney Dodds who fed Dougie Norris on the inside. Dougie took the ball into contact and with the close support of Ali Mills recycled the ball. John Collins flicked the ball blind to Toby Turk, yes Toby Turk on the wing! Toby then sprinted (I use the term loosely) 50m burning off the St Sever winger in the process. To score under the posts. Clearly Jimmy Speirs was so astounded it put him off the straight forward conversion. Harps lead 12-0 after 6 minutes.

The picture opposite shows the St Sever winger after the game wearing the shoebox of shame (the hat was apparently missing) for being outrun by a prop!

St Sever forced a penalty from the kick off as we were penalized for not releasing the ball. They put the ball to the Harps 22m line but Zac Kent stole their ball at the middle of the lineout, but a sloppy knock on wasted the advantage and gave St Sever a scrum in the middle of the Harps half. Harps won the ball against the head and George Barnes picked up and made 20m before being forced into touch. Tom Baker stole the ball at the back of the lineout and linked well with the backs. St Sever stopped the attack on their own 22m line but were penalized for handling in the ruck. Jimmy Speirs took a quick tap penalty and fed Rui Caetano out wide to score an unconverted try in the corner and a lead of 17-0 after 12 minutes.

A knock on at the kick off gave St Sever a scrum but once again Harps took the ball against the head. The backs spun the ball wide only to spill the ball with the line beckoning. St Sever won the resultant scrum but then in seeking to drive up the pitch before clearing succeeded only in giving the fly half a hospital pass which he fumbled and allowed Turky junior to touch down for his second try of the match. Jim Speirs duly slotted over the conversion and after 15 minutes the scoreboard was white hot at 24-0. St Sever enjoyed their best spell of the game after the kick off and managed to keep possession in their pack, although they never looked like scoring. However, the respite was shortlived when Tris Francis ran back a speculative St Sever kick and link with Dougie Norris who beat the outside man and passed inside to Courteney Dodds who ran in at the corner for an unconverted try.

The floodgates really opened now. Straight from the kick off Harps ran the ball back through too many pairs of hands for the writer to keep up with, but ending with Rui Caetano to score a converted try under the posts. With only 23 minutes gone the score was now 36-0! There was to be no let up as once again (after a short time out) Harps moved the ball straight back finishing with an unconverted try for Courteney Dodds in the corner. The restart was kicked deep and a good chase meant that Louis Gabriel cleared to touch. Ali Mills stole their ball but a knock on in the centres gave St Sever the put in at a scrum. Tris Francis dislodged the ball in a tackle on the fly half and John Collins pounced to spin a long ball to Gus Williams on the wing who ran in for an unconverted try and a 41-0 lead. Jimmy Speirs kicked deep after receiving the kick off and a good chase by Tris Francis and Dougie Norris caused the full back to kick straight down Gus Williams’ throat who ran in an unconverted try in the corner.

The next play was to be the last before half time but it had a familiar ring to it. They kicked off, Ali Mills caught, gave the ball to John Collins who spun a pass to Tris Francis who ran in from 60m. Half time 56-0 to Harps.

Second half – no change! St Sever kicked off, Zac Kent caught, fed the ball to Jimmy Speirs, Jimmy ran 30m before being stopped, popped the ball to John Collins who ran in from 35m to score a try under posts that he converted himself. 32 minutes gone and the score was 63-0.

A series of mistakes from the restart allowed St Sever to keep the ball in the Harp’s half for a few minutes, but good defence meant that St Sever again made the mistake of kicking long only to be punished by a lightening Harpenden counter attack, this time finished by Phil Blasquez in the corner. A great scissors move from recycled ball after the restart was wasted with a penalty given against us for not releasing in the last-ditch tackle. St Sever kicked to touch but Rory Grant stole the ball at the front of the line out. Toby Turk burst away from the blindside of the maul to trundle in unopposed from 40m for a superb hat-trick of tries.

Normal service was resumed when from the restart Jimmy Speirs caught the ball and ran through and past half a dozen attempted tackles to score from 75m. With 18 minutes left the score was now 78-0.

The referee now offered St Sever another coaching timeout. Ali Mills claimed the restart and fed Louis Gabriel. Louis ran 60m to cross the line and pass the ball to Sean Longden for his first try in 3 years. Still don’t know how Sean got there that quickly, we can only assume he was still running back from the previous try! Anyway, 83-0 after 45 minutes.

Another try from the kick off. This time Luke Johnson received the ball and ran in from halfway to score under the posts with Courteney Dodds converting to make it 90-0. We ran the ball back from the kick off but gave away a silly penalty on halfway. St Sever kicked to the Harps 22m line. But once again the forwards stole the ball and fed the back line. A miss move in the centres found Dougie Norris on the wing and an inside pass to Courteney Dodds gave him the opportunity to beat the full back one-on-one to score a try under the posts that he converted himself to make it 97-0 with 10 minutes to go.

The 100 followed two minutes later as following a scrum Louis Gabriel turned the ball over in the centres. Rory Grant was on hand to clean up the loose ball and to link with the pack to set up a driving maul. Spotting a gap, John Collins broke down the blind side to put Gus Williams in for an unopposed try under the posts that he converted himself.

The final try was scored with five minutes to go when, following a penalty, John Collins kicked the ball to within 15 metres of the St Sever line. Zac Kent claimed clean ball to set up the drive and after sucking the defence in, the ball was thrown wide for Dougie Norris to score an unconverted try under the posts to make the score 109-0 to Harps.

From the restart we saw the final phase of play. Ali Mills claimed the catch and the forwards drove the ball into the St Sever half. The referee blew for a knock-on as the ball was fumbled in the pack and he decided that he had seen enough of the carnage and blew for full time a few minutes early.

Although this was as one-sided a game of rugby as you will ever see, it should be mentioned that St Sever never stopped trying and always tried to play good rugby. They just had no answer to the difference in pace and strength between the two teams. It should also be said that at no team did the Harps lads take the pi** and they showed respect to the St Sever boys. A point made strenuously by the St Sever coach after the match.

And so with the rugby over, St Sever took us all back to the fantastic converted barn that was there clubhouse for a fantastic supper and from there to the local hostelry where they insisted on buying more beer for all. What a nice bunch of people they were!

And so at just before midnight we started the bus journey back to the hotel for our 5 o’clock wake up call.

Some of the hardier members of the parents decided that there was no point in going to bed and that the casino was the place to go.

Finally, the touring life of the Harps under 17s as boys is over (until the next time). All in all they have been a pleasure to take all over Western Europe and their rugby has done themselves and the club credit.

A final word of thanks to “Sticky” Johnson and his able assistant “Slightly Tacky” Grant without whom the tour would not have happened. A Bientot!

Team

Jimmy Speirs (capt), Sean Longden, Joe Beale, Michael Singleton, Toby Turk, Rory Grant, George Barnes, Tom Baker, David Arbuthnott, Phil Blasquez, Ali Mills, John Collins, Courteney Dodds, Louis Gabriel, Rui Caetano, Luke Johnson, Dougie Norris, Tris Francis, Angus Williams and Zac Kent.

Coaches:

Robin Longden

T: 01438 832217

M: 07785 555653

Mike Baker

T: 01582 760531

Mike Norris

T: 01525 373319