The B&H Sea Serpents slain

Written by Doug Wright (if you hadnt guessed may or may not have been the, loosely termed, goal kicker on the day)

In typical fashion, Thursday morning didn’t look good with only 11 players looking likely for Saturday. However, in true Babas spirit come 2.30pm on Saturday, there were 22 able men willing to take the field, which also included some rugby players and even Tony Parsons made an appearance. The age range stretched from 21 to 60, following Lee’s birthday two days previous. This week’s team also included 3 debutants with a Welshman, South African and Frenchman (there’s a joke there!) turning out. As we are a polite bunch and don’t like to take the piss, I’ll name them as Rob, Mike & Arnoud.

This week’s opposition in the Babas first league game were the Brighton & Hove Sea Serpents, who like the Babas, are an inclusive team with 15 men willing to put their bodies on the line every Saturday.

The game kicked off in the Hove sunshine and started at a rapid pace, the Babas quickly penetrating the Sea Serpents defence, a tactic used with differing success during the 4 encounters last season. As such, this resulted in an early try from our giant South African centre crashing through the Sea Serpents from a superbly delivered pass from the back of the ruck. Conversion missed, more about that later. 0-5.

The game continued in an emphatic pace, the Babas continuing to batter the Sea Serpents, who struggled to keep up with hard runs from the Babas forwards. Mike Drew was a constant threat and was soon found to be falling over the try line. Again conversion missed. 0-10

The game became quite erratic due to the pace of the game, which resulted in a lot of handling errors, which the Sea Serpents took advantage of, making made some dangerous runs, however struggled to convert into points, partly due to the great defensive effort by the Babas, mostly the backs, as the forwards generally walked round the pitch.

Those forwards can be greedy but finally they managed to get the ball out to the backs. This resulted in some great runs from the ‘Welsh Wizard’ (how did we get a Welsh coach?) and as such Rob (his proper name) managed to bag a brace of tries, both of which seemed to be closer to the touch line than the posts. You know it is a lot harder for a goal kicker when they are further away from the posts.

The Babas were now 0-20 up with half time approaching a stranglehold on the game, Thursday night training finally starting to pay off and Mike, our new South African fly half controlling the game well and forming a great half back partnership with the forever young Doug Wright, proving that despite a 13 month sabbatical, could still mix it with the big boys or at least still able to bend over and pass the ball.

With a lot phases the Babas moved into the Sea Serpents half and following a fantastic move from the backs (the forwards will no doubt mention their contribution) resulted in a great try finished off by Andries on the 15m line (who ignored the goal kicker's instructions to get nearer the posts). 0-25

Just before the half time oranges a lovely down field kick was well chased and a few nice hands resulted going in under the posts (Andries again?). The goal kicker, however, was too far away to be grateful for a relatively easy conversion attempt so Mike duly converted 0-32.

Half time came and with vitamin C on aboard and the finishers gracing the field the Babas went into the second half confident, but not complacent. As we know this is a game of two halves and it’s important the Babas start well, going through the phases and do the simple things well. Tim Smith & Nick White kindly providing touch line kicking tips.

With so many changes, the clinical first half display was kicked to touch and the game resulted in a lot of handling errors and resulted in some end to end stuff, even the handful of spectators were struggling to keep up. The Babas managed to endure the countering ability of the Sea Serpents outside centre, who made some hard yards, keeping the Sea Serpents in the game. The second half was becoming a much closer affair. You could argue the experience at 9 was missing, but I won’t mention it.

Persistent attacking with some barn storming runs from the forwards, particularly Mike Drew, Will McHale and Lee Maguire resulted in the Babas slowly moving towards the tryline (forwards are slow) and Ed Cresswell managed to trot over for a try in the corner. A new goal kicker emerged in the second half, however same result as the first. 0-37.

The Sea Serpents started to get some traction in attack and made ground, creeping into the Babas 22. The Babas trong defence kept them out for a good period of time, however the barrier eventually broke and the Sea Serpents went over for their only try of the game. Not to be outdone by the Babas goal kickers, the Sea Serpents duly missed the conversion.

There was still some time for more rugby and the Babas attacked the Sea Serpents 22 for one last time, put together what seemed like 20 odd agonising phases and following some greedy forwards having white line fever, Josh Blake managed to dive under some Sea Serpents and score in the corner, surprisingly the conversion was missed. (training note).

Final score – B&H Sea Serpents 5 Horsham Babas 42.

Notable performances include Mike Drew (MOTM), and well down to newbies Mike, Rob & Arnoud who played his first ever game of rugby along with Ally Russell’s first game in 10 years. Also the scrum halves played well play, as 9s usually do.

Disclaimer: The details in the report may not be 100% true and may have been used for comedic effect (a matter of opinion, I know)