Thames 17 - Millwall Llamas 12

A day that was not designed for spectators or indeed champagne rugby brought a merry band of Llamas to Thames rugby club.  The conditions on leaving the bus meant we sobered up pretty quickly, there were not going to be enough clothes or sprints in the world to keep a person warm out there. 

Apart from an early burst of flair from Myles Walker that made it very close to the try line, the first half was a long old slog, it felt at times that we were reprimanded after every decent run of play, but then we should really have been able to adapt to the whistle quicker than we managed to.  Thames capitalised on all the advantages they had, and for the most part had the better of the scrums, improvements to the Millwall scrum being noticeable with the late first half substitution of Toby Sanders.  The other late first half substitution that made an impact was that of men’s chair Sebastian Villard which resulted in our first try just on half time.  I was told that apparently he finds playing on the wing boring (he’s not wrong) yet he does it so well, he reinvigorated the backs while he was on the pitch., the effects lasting even when he came off part the way into the next half.

Going into the second half 17-5 felt much less daunting than it could have, the energy now feeling like it was coming with us.  We managed to contain Thames much better and they never looked all that dangerous again.  Our 13 and one of the French wings in particular looked threatening with ball in hand, after completing a solid attacking phase we were in Thames 5 when our fly half was clotheslined.  This resulted in a penalty try and some minutes worriedly pacing about trying to keep warm while worrying about the injury.  Fortunately our man got up and walked into the changing room and play briefly resumed. 

The appetite for the game had really gone out of the game for both teams after the incident and the score remained at 17-12 for the final whistle.