College Rugby: James 40-0 Derwent

By Oliver Woodward

In an encounter that failed to live up to the pre-match hype, three-time reigning college rugby champions James used all their experience to outclass Derwent 40-0.

Although it is early on the season, both Derwent and James knew how valuable a victory in this fixture would be in order to stamp their authority as college rugby’s team to beat. The enthusiasm to get stuck in was also evident, with shouts of “whites in their eyes” echoing from an unknown source in an early scrum and some heavy tackles all over the pitch. Derwent, coming off the back of a big win against Alcuin, were full of confidence, but before the game had even settled James showed their class by opening the scoring with a great forwards move. Beginning with a line-out in the opposition 22, James worked down the blindside effectively to send flanker Toby Tremlett over. Alex Muntus produced a nearly faultless display with the boot, making all of his conversion attempts apart from his first.

Derwent were never able to recover, the ball retention from James meant that they controlled possession and pitched camp in their opposition’s 22. Eventually the pressure told and No.8 Giles Welford capitalised on a hole in the midfield to score under the posts. The fact that five out of the six James tries came from forwards indicates how much this games was played up the middle, with Derwent unable to deal with the superior rucking power of the James pack.

It had only been 20 minutes when Dave Wilcock bundled over, the extras making it 19-0 to James and the game that had promised so much looked dead and buried. However, Derwent managed to show some promise before half time and neutralise the initial onslaught somewhat but they were not dynamic enough going forward to cause their opponents problems. Some scrappy exchanges saw the rest of the half slugged out near the half-way line but James went into the break much the happier side.

The second half produced more of the same, and another score came through the James forwards, who were starting to enjoy the white line fever that the backs are normally accustomed to. The powerful front-row Wilcock grabbed his second of the game, going over after effective counter-rucking and a lack of defensive organisation in the Derwent 22.

Derwent fought hard for the whole 80 minutes, showing glimpses of potential but were ultimately unable to keep possession for long spells. Muntus capped his impressive kicking display with a moment of great opportunism, taking advantage of some tired legs to weave his way under the posts leaving the score at 33-0.

James were impressive defensively as they were going forward, this was typified by big hits from Chris Smith in the middle of the park, cutting off Derwent attacks before they could build momentum. There was time for James to add a final score, Toby Tremlett getting his second before the final whistle, 40-0 the scoreline.

James’ vice-captain Tom Pinney said after the game: “We showed today that we perform as a team and don’t rely on individuals. The all round contribution was the key today as we knew Derwent were not going to go down without a fight.” Derwent’s Freddy Harris bemoaned his team’s lack of organisation and the absence of some key players on the day.

With two terms of rugby, there may be some twists and turns to come in the league yet, so James must keep their feet firmly on the ground.