Sat 7 Jan 2023
Hard fought win for the Exiles
Cambridge Exiles 26 - 19 Norwich Union
A shorter report coming up (waits for applause to die down) as yours truly being involved in the match wasn’t able to take notes, so this is done from memory - not what it was and potentially slightly rose tinted…
First match of 2023 saw the Exiles facing Norwich Union. The match in Norwich had been a closely fought encounter with NU’s carry forward being matched with Exiles defence so that the game was played mostly between the 22s. When the Exiles got the ball, they made ground through their young fast backs. That pattern was mirrored in the home game.
Exiles kicked off with a strong wind at their backs. Norwich caught the ball and maintained possession for most of the next twenty minutes, their pack of big forwards being supported by a back line of mostly… big forwards (it seemed.) The rucks always well supported, turnovers were next to impossible and possession was only won by knock ons and penalties for going off the feet at rucks, superbly marshalled by the generally excellent refereeing. At one of these rucks the 25 stone Norwich tight head flopped over, smothering Joe like an elephant seal relaxing on a beach. Fortunately James CB had great presence of mind and prevented both Joe being penalised for not rolling away and potential suffocation, by grabbing one leg and extracting him like Shrek pulling wax from his ear. I swear I heard a pop when his head came out from under the prone body.
Both teams won their own line outs, though the Exiles had trouble between catcher and scrum half as the wind stopped the ball from quite reaching James R. In scrums, the Exiles struggled to contain the weight of the opposing pack at first, though after two years without playing prop, and on the unnatural loose head side, once the rustiness cleared, Dick at least held up forward progress. Cadge was solid but also struggled on the tight and as a result, unusually Banksie didn’t get a single strike against the head. Not sure the put in was perfectly straight as he was very close on many occasions… Dec and Julian provided the grunt to just hold the heavy opposition at bay.
Around the pitch, Norwich targeted the Cambridge half backs, but neither James R nor Mark - by some way the two smallest players on the pitch - missed a tackle. a phenomenal display of which both should be proud. As expected, Joe, Cam and James CB also provided stout defence, and Rijk and Fred in the centres were equally robust. The back three rarely saw the ball as Norwich kept things tight.
As the Exiles defence continued to smother the Norwich attack, at last their scrum half ran out of options and box kicked into the Exiles 22, where Nathan caught the ball and turned. With the defence flying up he crabbed across the pitch looking to get near enough to pass the ball to Max for the clearance kick but then saw that the open side defence was almost non existent and pinned back his ears. By the time he had made the Norwich 10m on the left touchline, the covering defence closed him down and he made a superbly judged kick ahead and the race was on. Streaking ahead he crossed the line and touched down for the Exiles first try. But… wait a minute the referee like most of us, was still on half way and couldn’t see clearly. Having made it to the in-goal area he asked the touch judge for his opinion. This was that the ball had been touched down beyond the dead ball line. Now; that dead ball line is one metre from the advertising hoardings and Nath, running at full pace when he dived would have crashed into the hoarding had he not touched down in-goal… Nevertheless, the referee was adamant that he couldn’t give the try as he couldn’t be sure it had been scored. 99% of these would have been given, but in this case the try was disallowed. No TMO at level 8!
The try line drop out didn’t go far and at last the Exiles exerted pressure. Retaining the ball for multiple phases, battering the line, eventually the pressure told and when the ball went out to Mark a characteristic little duck and dive saw him cross the whitewash for the first try, duly converted by Max for a 7-0 lead.
From the kick off, good runs from Rijk twice, Fred and Cesar all took the Exiles back towards the Norwich try line and after several phases of play and a few scrums that were now evenly contested, Rijk powered over for the score, again converted by Max for 14-0. It was beginning to look ominous for Norwich.
Dick took a breather, being saved for later in the game and Cam moved up to loose head. Yvan came into the back row. Now the pressure on the scrum began to tell. Norwich moved up the pitch and their rolling maul started to work off the lineout. As one moved inexorably towards the Exiles try line, it went down, Joe was adjudged to have collapsed it deliberately and was sent to the bin. Opting for the scrum instead of the penalty and with the Exiles down to 14, the pressure told and a classic pushover resulted in a No 8 try at the base. Conversion failed into the wind and at half time the score was 14-5 in the Exiles favour.
With the wind behind them Norwich were expected to kick more for position. While this did happen, they were well aware of the danger the Exiles backs posed and kept it to a bare minimum. After a few minutes Dick came back on as Joe’s sin bin ended and Cadge took his ten minute breather, during which there were no scrums! Alex also swapped with Cesar. After being targeted so many times, James R had to go off with a broken nose after a big late hit, not spotted by the referee and Adriano came on, Rijk starting with scrum half duties, quickly changed to Fred.
In the confusion, Norwich were able to make ground and despite heroic defence on the try line, managed to cross for a try, well converted. 14-12
The Exiles were now fired up and had more possession. Several storming runs from James CB, ever a nightmare to get to ground, took the Exiles up the pitch. Try line pressure looked to have told, but the Norwich scrum half deliberately knocked on with the line open which at a higher level would have been a penalty try and yellow card. The resulting penalty though, was spread wide and Max dived over for a try in the left corner which he could not convert into the wind. 19-12
Play went back up the other end and again a short range try with another excellent conversion. 19-19
Surely, heartbreak for the Exiles could be averted? After the ding dong another ding was required and the Exiles played their best rugby of the game. Banksie carried, ruck, Cam carried, ruck, Dec carried, ruck, James CB yet another long run and the Exiles were deep into the red zone. After three attempts from short range tied in the Norwich defence, Adriano spun the ball wide left where the Exiles had a three man overlap and Max took the ball over for his second try. The conversion made it look difficult for Norwich to now win from a seven point deficit, and gave Max the player of the match award. His two tries and three conversions were backed up by excellent tackling, good attack, solid catching and kicking, all round thoroughly deserved.
Dong! Back came Norwich. Ball held up over the Exiles line. Goal line drop out driven back. A penalty, not enough with seconds to go! Norwich opt for the scrum. After an hour of play for the first time for over two years, Dick’s time had come. Despite the immense pressure from Mr Walrus, he didn’t move and the scrum rotated round him. Reset. Second scrum, same outcome. Complaints from Mr Walrus to the ref that Dick was pulling him - clever move to pull the opposition while being stationary, presumably that must have been that Mr Walrus was trying to go backwards? Anyway, reset. Again, no movement from the Exiles 63 year old front row and they decided to pass to the right wing, who despite knowing it was the last play of the day inexplicably opted to kick for touch in the corner winning him DotD and the match was over, the Exiles deservedly winning what was not a pretty game, but one played throughout in excellent spirit from both sides, 26-19.
One game back, and Sudbury II another winnable game next week. Well done the Exiles!
Scorers
Tries: Mark, Rijk, Max 2
Conversions: Max 3
Team
Dick Wallin, Simon Banks, David Cadwalladr, Declan Sully, Julian Mannion, James Campos Bell, Joe Roberts, Cameron Prior, James Robinson, Mark Leckie, Cesar Belloso, Rijk Diepeveen, Fred Nash, Nathan Cowley-Wilson, Max Burton
Replacements: Yvan Bollet-Quivogne, Adriano Boscaini, Alex Howard
