Having lost the away fixture by a point in the last play of the game the boys are planning to come out fired up and take the game to the visitors from the whistle, just like we did last time, but this time showing some ruthlessness to finish the job.

The last few weeks have been frustrating. A very tough game against CS Stags saw us lose the game in the last 15 minutes by conceding 3 soft tries and allowing them the double over us this season. We bounced back the week after against a much stronger Westcliff team and things appeared to be back on track, but that wasn’t the case. We traveled to Chingford last week resting a couple of players and carrying a few long term injuries but still confident of getting the win. Chingford had other plans, but this time we did at least come away with some points.

The overwhelming feeling after the game was that we had let ourselves down. Some of that was our performance, some of it the conditions and some of it because of the very high standards we set ourselves.

We started strongly but quickly allowed a fairly one dimensional but niggly team to rattle us. The conditions were awful and there are many teams that would have rolled over when things don’t go their way but we showed real character to draw level with the last play of the game and earn a draw.

Playing with a strong wind in the first half we made the most of it and created a clever try with a nudge from fly half James Doe in behind the Chingford backline, wing Phil Chesters the beneficiary of good vision and execution (think Owen Farrell to Johny May and you won’t be far off the mark!). Frustratingly, that was our first half highlight and we preceded to show a lack of discipline to give away a raft of penalties against a team we should have put away early on. There was no threat from Chingford and all we needed to do was trust our defence which has proved solid over the last few weeks. However the stream of penalties conceded gave Chingford the opportunity to kick into our territory and work off their line out: territory they wouldn’t have got without our help.

The 2nd half was a dog fight but there were some notable performances from flanker Rich Ridley (particularly in defence), prop Bertie Haskins (now playing in the back row) and a game saving contribution from prop Sam White, part of a dominant scrum that won the penalty try as the clock went red.

Elsewhere the second team have had a tough couple of weeks playing Jersey away, which is always a tough journey, where they just lost. The second fixture was against a rather unimpressive Richmond team to whom they also just lost to.

I hope to be writing a much more positive report in the coming weeks as we go into the break with a W on the board and still in the race for promotion. Onwards and upwards, come on the DONS!

See you at the bar

Stef