OL’s extras succumbed to their third defeat of the season on Saturday, eventually succumbing to a determined Stratford side that had been held for the majority of the 80 minutes.

OL’s fielded a side leaning towards youth and exuberance. Jason Hobman and Craig White made their senior debuts, with Mike Tattersfield and Tom Smith returning to the Extra’s setup. Happily Toby Godridge and Brothers Hall were on hand to up the average age and provide some much needed experience.

Initially, the two sides were evenly matched. Stratford struggled to do anything with the ball they had, whereas the Extras were perhaps a little over-inclined to kick, and the ball stayed in between both 22’s for around about ten minutes or so. The breakthrough came courtesy of the Stratford inside centre, smashing through several tackles and offloading to a support player.

Stratford were able to score another try, but credit should go to this OL’s team who did not let their head’s drop and kept on at it. There were positives out on display; the counter running of Paul Salvin was a joy to behold, Tom Smith and Howard Wicks crossed the gain line every time they took the ball into contact, and the scrum held up well against good opposition.

Neil Hall had to come off a few minutes before half time, allowing Aaron Dudley the chance to show his quality at Full Back. Alas, with his first touch of the ball he knocked on, simultaneously awarding Stratford a scrum and committing the act that would ensure that the Barcode “DoD” award would be his come the final whistle.

Stratford scored two more tries in the second half. The first came from the centre, crashing over from short range, the second from the winger who stepped his man and went around the outside. Three conversions were scored in total and Stratford finished deserved 26-0 victors.

Again, let me stress the positives from this performance. The colts were brilliant, Jason Hobman was able to take time away from styling his hair to say this on behalf of the younger generation “OL’s played to a high standard, the youth are pushing through which shows good signs for OL’s in the future!” At least, that’s what I think he said but you try reading his handwriting after he’s had a half pint of beer!

Team Captain for the day, Toby Godridge, had this to say “Every one gave there all and it was a far better performance than the result reflects.” Short and to the point, as were his speeches to the players. Toby was part of the team that played in the thoroughly un-enjoyable encounter with Rugby Welsh the previous week, and his mantra of ‘enjoy yourself’ was received well by all players.

Barcode “Man of the Match” goes to Tom Smith. The outside centre played fantastically going forward and made his tackles well. Tom is looking more and more the senior player and deserves this weeks accolade.

We may have lost the game but this is one tick in the box for the future. We have the quality coming through. Next game AEI Rugby. Whoop-de-doo......