Boars win twin town tournament

A strong Heathfield Boars team travelled to their twin town Forges Les Eaux to participate in the local rugby tournament. The usual end of season tour preparations (i.e. drinking too much way too early) had been curtailed by a change of travel plans forced on the team by the closure of the Dieppe port by striking French fishermen. The alternative trip via Eurotunnel proved successful and less taxing on the liver.

A jaded but functioning group of players gathered on the Saturday morning and set about recovering their rugby playing skills in advance of playing.

The Boars opened the tournament and their first opponents were Grand Couronne (a team from near Rouen) and they proved stubborn but quite subdued opponents. At first it was as if neither team had quite warmed up but the Boars hit their stride first. Late in the first half the forwards gained good position and then Matt Skinner took a pass after several phases of play. Anyone who has seen him in ‘broken play’ will know how dangerous he is and he ran the width of the field plus the remaining 25 metres to score the opening try. In the second half the Boars had to resist a lot of pressure from the French before scoring the second try with a lovely breakaway move. Started on the left the ball was spun right through hands and out to right winger Dave Groom who made a lot of ground before cleverly offloading as he realised that two defenders were closing on him. Who was on hand to collect the pass, none other than Matt Skinner. That effectively closed the contest and the clock ran down without any additional scoring.

The next game saw the hosts Forges les Eaux hold on for a ‘surprise’ scoreless draw against last years champions Racing Club Paris 15.

After a long delay for two ‘youth matches’ (Forges Les Eaux have some promising young talent coming through) the Boars were up to face Paris in a match that the Boars had targeted as “The Big One!” It was thought that Paris had the edge in the backs and that the Boars could win the forward battle. The only problem was that the opposition had worked this out and committed men and fought hard to deny the Boars yards. This led to a dour ‘defence dominated’ match that was played mostly in midfield. Neither team showed the guile nor the brute force necessary to break through, so the match ended scoreless.

Forges were then beaten by Grand Couronne who showed considerable ability in the forwards who dominated play in that area and laid the platform for their two try to nil victory.

This set up a final round of games with the tournament wide open as any of the four teams could win the trophy. Next up were the unbeaten RC Paris 15 team up against an improving Grand Couranne side. This was an open flowing match with exciting attacking flair and good defence. Paris took the lead when their inside centre anticipated a pass and intercepted to race away to score. Shortly before the end of the game Grand Couranne were allowed advantage for a Paris knock on halfway and broke through a weakened defence to equalise. A draw did no favours to either side and promoted the Boars to tournament favourites.

It was now simple so long as the Boars did not lose to their hosts, Les Forgerons, they would win the tournament. If they lost the trophy would stay in France.

The final game was the most attractive of the tournament for spectators and even the home crowd cheered the Boars play when it was deserved. Forges gave it all they had and left the field with heads held high but it was the Boars who clicked into top gear. The opening try was an absolute corker. It was a classic entry into the line at speed from Matt Skinner after centres Hesketh and Farrell had pulled their opposite numbers away with dummy runs. Skinner blasted through on the Forges 10 metre line and no one got within 10 metres of him as he placed the ball between the posts. A second Skinner try before half time gave the Boars some breathing space and they weathered the Forges pressure early in the second half before driving up field through the forwards as a means of running the clock down. This gave a lovely platform for the backs to time their attacks and this led to the final score of the tournament when a Skinner break was nicely finished off by Dave Groom.

This was a very enjoyable finale to the Boars season and makes Tony Rose even more secure in his “Most Successful Boars Manager Ever” guise. To say that the party went on long into the night underestimates the stamina of some of these guys.

Man of the Tournament was between Matt Skinner for his 4 tries and general brilliance, Duncan Hesketh for battering any opponent who came his way and Jono Sharp for non stop effort coupled with good decision making.

Boars Squad – M. MacLeod, J. Sharp, B. Togher, J. Geesin, J. Cumming, J. Parsons, S. Barrow, T. Rose, K. Lewis, I. Schleider, B. Burdett, N. Newport, D. Hesketh, A. Farrell, D. Groom, M. Barber, M. Skinner

6/11/2008 1:02:55 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)