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It started as a lovely winter day at Twickenham and the Ts still licking their wounds from a heavy defeat one week earlier. Today’s opponents: Saracens Amateurs, a team which on paper and also on the league table was better than us. Indeed things didn’t start that well with the Ts conceding two tries for miss tackles on the first 10 minutes. Saracens looked more composed and structured and some of us feared that this game could go very wrong. It wasn’t so...

After that second try something changed in the Ts minds and the team collective said ENOUGH!!!

It started with our forwards (as it always does),  putting pressure on kick off, winning the ball and playing several green balls to put us right were we wanted: in their 22 on the left side of the pitch with room to let the backs do their thing. They didn’t though because Billy called a crash ball and opened a gap for a sprinting and angry Glamm who ran a perfect line knocking several players out of his way and only stopping behind the posts. 12-7 was the result and a statement was issued: THIS IS OUR HOME!!

Another missed tackle in the centers allowed Saracens to extend their lead but the challenge had been issued and the Ts were determined to win this game.

We kept the pressure and our second try was scored, this time by Callum after an incredible run by Matty,  I still have a lot of gas on my tank, Yates.

Before half time, another brilliant moment of play by the forwards provided Slash (what a game he had) a good ball that later ended up in Billy’s hands who decided to have a go after seeing a glimpse of a gap. You know how this normally ends…yes it was a score under the posts. Brilliant try Billy.

By half time, the T’s were ahead by a few points.

The second half showed, in the words of our beloved coaches, “the best Rugby we have played in more than one year” and indeed things were good. Rory was running over people like toys, Tramp used his right claw 10 times in one single run of 40 meters and the forwards were in a word: brilliant. You could see that we wanted to win this game more than they did and that made a huge difference.  Our defense was focused and our attack structured allowing another brilliant try to be scored through a maul led by “el comandante” Coogan who clearly knows what he is doing in those situations.

We also conceded another try but only after spending 15 mins or more under ours posts defending consecutive avalanches of Saracens who simply could not find a breach in our wall. They did persevere though and got a good try out of it proving that they are a very good team.

The game intensity didn’t slow down and our players were starting to feel it. Glen (welcome back buddy) was in pieces and still insisted on playing until he finally got replaced by Lance who could barely walk… It’s very inspiring to see players not thinking about themselves at all and putting their bodies on the line like today. Other examples were Botha who was playing with a broking rib and Zippy with a wrist injury who barely allowed him to catch the ball. He did catch it once or twice though and then you all know what happens: it’s like a train going through a flock of sheep. What a form this guy is in!!

We still managed to score one last try by our new starter and very handy Clem who was where he needed to be and had to work hard to go over a few corpses. Again Slash was brilliant in his distribution of the ball.

All in all, this was a brilliant match and I am very proud to have been part of it. This team showed a great deal of character to come back fighting like we did today. At the end of the match the coaches were speechless which in itself says a lot and the only thing we could see was the big smile on James Gent’s face.

Final result: 33-22 for the good guys. Great win Thamesians!!!

Tries: Glam, Callum, Billy, Coogan, Clem

Convs: Billy (x4) - 2 from the touchline... nice touch Bill (Ed).

Man of the match: Rory
Dick of the day: yours truly (Franco)
Match Report: Franco