The third away trip in as many weeks, an early start and a bit of last minute “musical lifts” saw the Clevedon army mobilised up the M5 on an hour trip to Wiltshire for the preliminary round of the Bristol Junior Combination Cup. Corsham had featured strongly in the same competition a year previous and we’d enjoyed a tight game against them in the combination sevens, where they proved to be a very good, intelligent passing side – so yet another tough mornings rugby was expected. We knew little of our opponents however in a funny way we knew even less about ourselves!!!!!!.....the season so far had seen a good performance against Cleve and a horror show against Clifton – so which Clevedon was going to turn up?

The site of a crepe wagon as we arrived at Corsham RFC seemed to stir more enthusiasm and excitement into the boys than they had shown the entire previous week!!! And fortunately this attitude continued. A fairly focused warm-up was welcomed by the coaches and as Kick off approached it was clear the lads were ready to atone for their sins!!!

It was a gorgeous morning, the Corsham 1st XV pitch was a great surface to play on and from the opening exchanges it was obvious we were in for a competitive and full blooded game of rugby. Clevedon’s brawn against Corsham’ s brain was the footprint of the day and it was the swift handling of the home side that saw the cherry and whites strike first in the corner on the five-minute mark. Clevedon had defended resolutely in the early stages and now started to enjoy a little more possession. A moment of brilliance saw all the forwards combine, culminating in an unstoppable score for the visitors and Big Mac dabbing down the result of an 8-man effort. A further 10mins of committed rugby saw honours very much even at 5-5 come the break.

We are usually slow starters, so to enter half time without a mountain to climb was a welcome change. The difference this week …………..every single player wanted to tackle, and did tackle – it really is as simple as that.

After the break the exciting stalemate rugby continued and it became obvious it was going to take something special to split these teams. On the stroke of 35 minutes we got it. A barnstorming blindside run from the back of scrum from Mac deep in Clevedon territory culminated in an offload (instead of the usual unproductive kick ahead) to “The Tiny Tornado” who jinked and stepped and scorched around, ending up evading at least 5 or 6 tackles and putting in a nice pass to the speeding McCauly on the half way line. This was now a straight footrace between our talented welsh prop/flanker/centre their pacey winger and the covering fullback. There isn’t a more determined player in Clevedon than this guy, he believed in himself, pinned his ears back and looked to the corner. The full back seemed to have closed the gap but agonisingly ran out of gas and brushed McCauly with a last ditch tackle which was shrugged off as he finished the job across the whitewash. A nice conversion by Mac saw the lead stretched to 7 points.

Corsham now took the upper hand and despite some very resilient Clevedon defence within a few minutes some great hands saw our left wing outnumbered 3 to 1 and an unconverted try in the corner. With only two points between the teams the physical battle escalated further and the penalty count began to look more like a cricket score against the Blue and Gold!!! Because of this we began to lose our composure and cool allowing a few unsavoury demons out of the closet – the main one being questioning decisions instead of being alert to danger. From one such instance a quick penalty and a number of offloads later a jubilant Corsham had smashed over next to the posts to all but seal the win for the delighted and vocal home support. The conversion was good and with 3 minutes to go the scores stood at 17-12 in favour of the hosts. In the past we’ve almost been happy to accept the “hard luck” story, turned on each other and found a scapegoat to blame…………but very, very pleasingly not today. A retracted quick kick off wasted precious seconds and once Corsham were organised the battle commenced. A great kick chase, ended with some heroic “attacking” tackling keeping Corsham penned in their 22. A scrum, a lineout and a maul bought to ground ended in a live ball last play! Some good ground work by the pack saw the ball spun out to a determined Jake who pumped his legs and headed for the posts. Credit to the amazing Corsham defence to haul him down. A quick recycle saw the ball end up with Mac and even he was kept at bay by some inconceivable tackling on the line – but for the second time that day Mac proved he is progressing and instead of dying with the ball popped it up to …. none other than McCauly running a perfectly timed line off his shoulder and expertly under the posts from a yard out!!!!

Conversion to “seal the deal” ….ice cool, Mac made no mistake this time. 17-19 to the visitors at the final whistle and scenes erupted as though the world cup had come home!!!!

Personally I’m quite reserved when it comes to celebration, but I afforded the boys a few tears, hugs and chest pumps before I reminded one or two of them there was a very worthy opposition that need thanking. To be fair neither team should have lost and to be honest even if we hadn’t have scored that final try I would have been more than happy with almost all of a remarkable performance – it genuinely would have felt like a win whatever the score……….Why?

We showed our true character and bounced back from a terrible day out against Clifton.
We played for each other, as a team, most importantly in defence – Harry was standout in this area, but was ably assisted from some other surprising quarters in the form of Jared, Rudy and even Jamie (in only his second ever game fearlessly getting in the way on numerous occasions).
This game was special because it meant something to you boys, something more than usual………...you didn’t do it for me, the other coaches, for your parents……..you took responsibility and did it for yourselves and for each other. That’s a powerful thing to have. It’s what every coach should strive for. We can organise it, guide you, challenge you……. But when all’s said and done it’s your team, not ours. And the sooner you realise your results and your enjoyment are a direct mirror of the effort your willing to put in for yourself and your teammates the better.

Well done guys a really good day out………..tackles really do win games.