Match Report: Men's Blues vs. Crawshay's Welsh XV

Written by Noah Miller

This past week saw the men in Dark Blue take on a long-standing opponent, Crawshay's Welsh XV. Despite the cold and fog on Friday evening, the boys were excited to exhibit free-flowing rugby against a physical Welsh side - looking to avenge last year’s defeat. Before the game, all attendees and players observed a minutes silence in rememberance, and wreaths were placed by both captains. The first half started well for the Blues, fronting up physically in defence, playing with quick ball to stay on top and keep marching towards the opposition’s try line. Following a few positive kick battles, we had ended up in the attacking 22 where an opportunistic Tom Bessant capitalised on an overthrown Crawshays line-out, displaying a lovely turn of pace to beat the first defender and race under the posts completely untouched. The rest of the first half continued to show exciting rugby with tidy running from the back three, physical collisions all over the pitch, and numerous entries into the opposition’s 22. Despite coming close on numerous occasions, a defence fuelled by Welsh grit, alongside some messy play, the score remained 7-0 to the Blues at the half. A half-time discussion with key themes being more clinical in the score zone, stretching their defence with attacking width, and maintaining our strong first-phase collisions spurred the boys on ready to build off of a strong platform in the second half.

The scrum adds to Friday evening's fog as the Pavilion watches on.

Disappointingly, the second half began with conceding an early try following a well-timed attacking line by the Crawshays. However, the team responded well as a group: neat hands down the blind side Tom Humphreys put Henry Henderson into open space who cruised towards the try line. Two phases later and Blue #1310 Harry Pratt crashed over to put the Blues back in front. Continuing to build on this with strong phase play and field position we marched into their 22 again, alas losing the ball at the ruck where clinical broken attack brought the Crawshays into contention again - we had a game on our hands. The second half continued with competitive rugby working up and down the pitch, Sam Beverley #1330 providing a stellar performance, and Henry Williams slotting a penalty to maintain a narrow lead. We entered the closing stages up a score after Captain Reed Prinsep #1324, having done more than his fair share of carrying, dotted down another try and the Blues were looking confident having implemented key themes from the half-time talk. In closing out the game a succession of costly penalties were conceded by the Blues, with mistakes and penalties being costly throughout the game, upon which the Crawshays marched down the pitch and finished off a maul try to win the contest in the final play of the match. A gut-wrenching way to lose a hard-fought contest.

The Blues are grateful for the continued relationship with Crawshay's and look forward to another physical showing next year where we will be aiming to do one better. In the immediate future, we look forward to next Friday evening where we host Trinity College Dublin. The boys will be intending to build on last year’s victory, and implement the lessons from this defeat into practice.

Final score: Men's Blues 22-26 Crawshay's Welsh XV

See trylights from a misty Iffley Road here.

The Blues will look to regroup and go again this week against Trinity College. Steve Karpa's full album of photos from the match can be found on his website.