Nuneaton v Olney - 27th January 2024

A trip out to one of the form teams in the league seemed to be a formidable task on paper, but games are won on the pitch so Olney travelled to Nuneaton with their usual enthusiasm and willingness to perform well on the day. Backed by their travelling band of supporters (somewhat fewer than normal) they were full of hope for a good performance and result at the final whistle. Earlier in January we learned that Plod Soman had bought something on line using his donor card and not his credit card. Apparently it cost him an arm and a leg.

Having enjoyed some fine hospitality prior to the game (many thanks to Nuneaton for this), it was out to the pitch for the hostilities to begin. Olney fielded several changes again as per usual but the early exchanges saw both sides fairly evenly matched. Nuns opened the scoring bringing the full back into the line and he ran in from 40 metres. A second try extended their lead following a scrum wide on the right and the Nuns winger benefitting from a short pass to scamper over with the extra points added from a fine conversion. Olney’s first real attack saw Mac Staughton stopped just short and Rob Morgan picking up to drive over for the try. Nuns’ backs had their say shortly after when finishing a move under the posts but this was cancelled out by an Oscar Bennett try at the other end. The last five minutes of the half brought three more tries. A catch and drive by Nuns to give them the bonus point then another from the kick off when they took advantage of a knock on and the winger scoring with a run from half way. Olney kept themselves in contention with Luca Proietti forcing himself over from close range. Half time score at 35-21.

The second half continued in similar fashion with a feature being the Nuns full back relieving a lot of pressure with good clearance kicks. Our own Ewan Fuller was able to match this with some fine kicking himself, both out of hand and off the tee. Excellent tackling particularly by James Brock leading with his face is also worthy of a mention. Nuns opened the scoring in this half following a quick penalty catching the defence off guard a little but again this was cancelled out when Olney’s backs opened up the spaces and a high tackle resulted in a penalty try and a bonus point for the away side. It was now blood and guts stuff with numerous knocks to keep the physios busy and when Nuns next ventured into the Olney 22 the successful penalty kick at goal was rest and relief for a few moments. It also took Nuns to more than two scores ahead at 43-28. Eventually Nuns scored a further try to take the final score to 48-28.

One or two observations from the afternoon are that, despite a few grumblings from a minority of individuals, the young referee handled the match very well and was consistent throughout. There wouldn’t have been a game at all without him. Also Olney can compete with sides several places above them and can take their chances but the few mistakes they made proved costly as other sides will capitalise on them. We should possibly put this report in the Angling Times as one individual was kept busy fishing balls from the stream close to the pitch. We don’t know what bait he used but he was having a lot of success!

News from the Harris household is that Mr Harris came home one evening saying his work colleague came off his motorbike that afternoon. Really?” Said Mrs Harris. “Yes” he answered “He has brain damage, two broken arms and is blind in one eye”. “Well it’s no wonder he fell off, he probably shouldn’t have been on it in the first place” came the reply.