OPs lose to Amersham and Chiltern

The OPs welcome Amersham and Chiltern to Perivale on Saturday with the pitch in excellent condition and the sun shining. The side were fortunate to have Sean McAteer and Damien O'Dwyer back in the side whilst Mo Akbar had his league debut in the centre, replacing the unavailable VC James Booth. Will Clarke replaced the injured Barney Wellings on the wing.

The only aim for the day was to be better than the week before, when the side struggled in a poor performance. That was visible in the warm up with better intensity and the OPs started well. They weathered some early Amersham pressure before fighting their way back for an Aristide Goualin penalty. The OPs had a couple of line breaks that they couldn't quite finish, before Conor Dolan offloaded for Chris East to score after 17mins. 8-0. The OPs made an immediate break through the middle from kick off with Damien O'Dwyer charging forward. Amersham were forced to give another penalty which was converted for an 11-0 lead to the home side.

The OPs then had a brief implosion. An Amersham line break gave them good field position and they exerted pressure in the OP 22 with their number 8 eventually crossing from the back of a scrum. A poor missed tackle led to a second try for the away side. The OPs kicked off and were soon receiving a box kick, fielded by Ari Goaulin. As he tried to beat his man and offload the ball went up and the chasing defender raced through on the intercept to score. In the space of approx 5mins the OPs went from 11-0 up to 11-19 behind. The home side finally switched back on and got some good field position and possession. A third Goualin penalty made it 14-19. The OPs soon made another line break, Tomek Tsang sniping and as he attacked the full back passed to the supporting Joe Wellings, but the Amersham 15 tried to intercept one handed and knocked it on. The referee deemed it only worthy of a scrum. The OPs attacked for 5 further minutes but Amersham had a good defensive stand, eventually winning a penalty near their own line to kick the ball off for HT, 14-19.

The second half started ok, the OPs eventually getting good field position from a penalty and kick to touch. However a mix up in midfield meant the Amersham 13 picked up a loose ball and ran 80m for the try. 14-26 and a bitter blow for the OPs after 45mins. The next try for Amersham came approximately ten minutes later. The OPs overplayed deep in their own half and gifted possession back to Amersham who eventually scored from some pick and gos. A poor penalty from kick off led to more field possession and another try just two minutes later to put the game out of sight after 60mins, 36-14. That meant that the OPs had conceded three tries in five minutes in the first half, and a further two inside two minutes in the second half, costly periods that blew open a competitive fixture.

After 65mins the OPs hit back, following a driving lineout Joe Wellings ran through two poor tackles for a try. Soon enough, poor defence from the OPs this time granted the Amersham winger with the sixth try, 43-19. Again, at least, the OPs responded. Great offloads by Moore, Ridley and Tsang put O'Dwyer in space to draw the 15 and allow Joe Wellings to race through for the third OP try.

A frustrating fixture but certainly a better performance which shows progress. This is vital with the squad hoping to have some senior players back in the coming weeks. In the meantime, availability rears its head again next week with numbers down for the trip to Southend.

Damien Langley Award: Damien O'Dwyer on debut.
Joe Codrington Award: Tomek Tsang (last appearance for the 18yr old before heading out to Hong Kong to play rugby and train with the u20s)