24/10/09 v Parkhouse Lost 05 - 23

SATURDAY’S clash between the basement boys of London League 3 was the first game of the season H&B could and should - and almost certainly would - have won if the foul weather had blown over two hours earlier than it did.

But then when you’re not playing well fortune - and referees - tend to scowl on you, and though they created a dozen 22 carat try-scoring positions and opportunities, they contrived to blow all but one of them, with a little help from the stand-in referee.

With Kit Claughton back at fly half from long-term injury and knee surgery, there was real shape to the attack, though his brother and half-back partner Piers was played out of position again, this time at inside centre. All it needed was for the outside backs to play with the ambition and flair they had started to show in previous weeks, and H&B would have clinched the game in the first half.

As it was, a howling gale and scything rain served to inhibit the outside backs’ individual running confidence until injuries, some reorganisation, and a tiring Park House pack saw H&B start attacking with greater fluency too late in the game to swing the result.

H&B started well, playing in the visitors’ 22, and forcing desperate defence from Park House. But in a powerful try-scoring position, H&B’s dominant scrum was surprisingly penalised, and House were off the hook.

This was the pattern throughout the half. H&B would hit the ball up the middle, then move it wide - though often over-cautiously, moving the ball quickly through the hands without committing the defence. They were not helped by a combination of slow attacking ball and offside House defence closing down the midfield.

But when they did batter through the defence to within scoring distance, they were either penalised (at one stage they conceded seven penalties to House’s one), or they self-destructed. One attacking scrum on the five metre line was stolen against the head. Another was picked up from the back of the scrum by an H&B player who was then dispossessed. 14 possible points squandered.

The pack scrummaged well in the first half, though lineouts were a complete lottery in the swirling wind, but penalties were being racked up at the breakdown. In the 25th minute House posted the first score, against the run of play. From a series of perceived H&B offences, Park House ran the ball diagonally across the field and broke the defence for an unconverted try.

H&B continued to work the ball well into the visitors’ half, only to end up turning it over - not so much through handling, which was much improved considering the conditions, as penalties and isolation. All too often a good barrelling run would be turned over at the ruck because of lack of effective support play.

Starting the second half 0-5 down, H&B still looked the likelier side to win. But the visitors’ confidence had gradually grown, and they set out their stall within a couple of minutes, moving the ball through hands and shrugging off tackles to touch down.

10 minutes later a penalty made it 0-15 and put a different complexion on the game.

H&B continued to create scoring positions, and after being held up over the line, they moved the ball wide for Ben Davies to touch down.

Another assault on Park House’s line ended only yards short with a penalty, and the visitors drove over from the resultant kick and lineout to make it 5-20.

When a further promising H&B backs breakout was penalised, House used their good fortune by sealing the victory with a final try. For H&B it was the same old story, weakened again by missing players and others out of position. There’s no doubt that with the return of Kit Claughton, and with Richard Brooks back in midfield, the backline can develop into a potent force. But like the pack, which at its strongest is a comprehensively effective unit, that depends on most of its key players being regularly available. And so far this season, that’s been the missing link.

H&B: Lovick (Roche), Davies, Sheppard, Adams, Clifford (Edmunds), Cullingford, Hitch, Piotrowski, Harbord (Woolcott), K Claughton, P Claughton (c), Campbell, Diedericks, Steadman, Brampton.