Midlands 5 East (North), Sat 27 Jan 2007

Keyworth 0 - Hamians 0

Sometimes life somehow doesn't quite follow the script ...

Hamians travelled the short distance to local rivals Keyworth hoping to do the league double ...

despite the weather the keyworth pitch , forgetting the slope and long grass , was ideal for running rugby

hamins selection policy saw multiple change ups in personnal pikey , yorkie , chicago , rob b , eps , lamin , young steve shingfield , coops , dainty , cookie , sticky , nic D . mozza , anvil and pud ..bench phil , fat prop and jp

Keyworth were bottom of the league registering only 3 points all season , albeit they had several narrow losses . This encounter had been traditionally a tight encounter with two cup ties in the last 2 seasons going to extra time .

Advantage was lost from the kick off , with the ball not crossing the half way line ...from strong scrummage keyworth announced their intentions with forward drives and crash ball centre moves to the fore .

hmains got drawn into confrontation rugby , in both words and actions . The slick hands and quick ruck ball to give the wingers space to run was sadly lacking . Time and time the ball was slowed down allowing keyworth defence to realign .

Line outs and scrummage were creatng solid platforms to create attacking positions but players were becoming isolated and players dwelling too long on the ball ....keyworth to be fair pressurised to the edge closing down space

Half breaks from chicago in the centre , slowed down , as rather than offloading to support , contact was prefered ...allowing defence to dominate

Keyworth clearly suprised to be incontention after 20 minutes , confidence grew and were unlucky not to gain advantage from good linking backs movements ...

the half ended with hamins pressurising the home side line ...good play opened up the play and swift hands should have resulted in a score ..the ruck formed 2 yds out , keyworth hands over the ball hamins scrum half pranced around like a pantomine school girl extra trying to wipe dogshit off her pumps , delayed the delivery to the loosehead prop charging at speed ( who realised the ball was not going to be passed to him , realigned his charge to clear out the offending keyworth forward slowing down the ball )

This resulted in the penalty which may have been givem to hamins being reversed. Frustration as a scoring opportunity had been lost

half time

skipper details second half tactics ...

They kick off ..coops knocks on

from scrummage spend 20 mins defending

one chance to run from own line .swift hands creates overlap but ball spilled

defence good against varied attack

home side fail to take overlap possibilities

serous of penalties see hamins in keyworth 22 , good clean ball , first phase play being well defended .

hmains miss penalty opportunity when kick to corner beckoned

final 10 minutes hamisn waste 2 man overlap with backs running at front 5 forwards ...

with time running down keyworth nearly break out , great cover defence saves day

whistle blows nil nil draw

given 5 years ago we could play with 25% possession at keyworth and win ...to have 60% of ball and still fail to score is the perplexing thought

keyworths performance belied their league position as did hamians...

comments on ''the hamian big game showpony mentality '' , were once again being muted ..

enough said Captain Leavey has promised to personally call individuals on his expectancy for the remainder of the season

Cuptie action away at Casuals on the 10th feb in the NLD vase our last realistic chance of bagging a trophy this season ....

training and competion for places with the seconds second outing in 2 weeks resulting in a narrow loss at home to a strong boots A team