League-leaders James come unstuck against Vanbrugh

A rapidly improving Vanbrugh side battled to a deserved draw against unbeaten college rugby champions James, and could even have come away with a win on another day.

The atrocious weather, featuring Yorkshire's finest driving rain and biting winds, played directly into Vanbrugh's hands. James were unable to pull off their trademark sleek backs moves, while Vanbrugh made full use of their pack's strength and solid set-piece play.

Attacking from the off, Vanbrugh pinned James in their half for the first ten minutes without respite, and should have scored after five, but the weather led to the ball being dropped when the last pass was on. Although James were able to bring the play back to the halfway line, an attempt to gain possession with the boot went badly wrong, the ball landing straight into Vanbrugh ten Matt Pollen’s waiting arms.

The fly-half promptly stepped the onrushing flatfooted forwards and broke away down the left wing. Good support play from captain Satnam Surae helped put winger Manuel Sarmendu clean through, but a phenomenal covering tackle from lock Griff Chatwin sent the move crashing into touch.

However, the Vanbrugh pressure eventually told, sending centre Chris West across the whitewash in the corner, after a succession of pick and drives on the 22 had sucked in the James defence to create an overlap on the right. Given the awful conditions and the lack of a resident kicker, Vanbrugh never properly attempted the conversion, instead bizarrely taking a drop goal from halfway, which splattered back to earth around the 10m line.

Going behind for the first time this season, James seemed to get disheartened all too quickly. And this was compounded by verbal infighting breaking out, as errors accumulated around the literally steaming mudbath that was the tackle area. But as they regained possession and territory, their confidence also returned.

After a spell inside the Vanbrugh 22, good forward work saw a driving maul slither across the line, but the ball was ruled held up. Vanbrugh had been warned, and soon a flash of James' usual selves appeared, with flyhalf Alex Muntus using his pace and convincing fake to create a try on the right hand side. Despite shouts of crossing, no neutral eyes spotted an infringement in the lead up to the try, which proved too far out for even President Muntus' accurate boot to convert.

I feel we were on top for most of the match.
Vanbrugh's Alex Smith

Having scored, James’ anger appeared sated, the rest of the half proving a stalemate. And so the score at the break stood at five apiece, as it remained until the end of the game. James regained their composure at the start of the second half, as a series of substitutes and a stern half-time teamtalk brought renewed drive and vigour to their play.

Chasing down a kick that failed to find touch, Gideon Heugh, of High School Musical Fame, pressured the Vanbrugh backs into initially mishandling the ball, and a dangerous grubber kick forced them to touch the ball down over their own try line. However, the resulting scrum only confirmed the Vanbrugh pack’s domination in the set-piece, as they stole the James put-in and kicked their lines clear.

Building on this psychological edge, Vanbrugh went on to steal the resulting line-out too, allowing fly-half Pollen to exploit space behind the defensive line with a series of grubber kicks which carried the ball all the way to the try-line, only for him to unfortunately knock on three metres out.

And so it was Vanbrugh who took the upper hand for the last twenty minutes of the match, constantly attacking a James defence which remained admirably firm. Surging forward with powerful, yard-making runs, Vanbrugh played simple rugby to perfection - but perhaps too simple, as their moves always seemed to go one phase too many and end up turned over.

In the difficult conditions we didn't play our best game.
James's Giles Welford

James were pressed to the limit in defence, but despite conceding ground, at the critical moments the men in black tackled hard to deny the advance. And with their backs kicking well to relieve the pressure, the counter attack was always on, and with Vanbrugh slow to react to losing the ball, the threat of a last-minute breakaway winner was always lurking.

Ultimately though, neither side could quite find the break they needed to get a second score and secure the game, and so it finished honours even.

Speaking after the match, Vanbrugh stalwart Alex Smith commented, “Vanbrugh fought hard in a scrappy game and I feel we were on top for most of the match. James lost the set-piece battle, but good kicking out of hand kept them in the game right till the end.”

Meanwhile, stand-in James captain Giles Welford said, “In the difficult conditions, we didn’t play our best game of rugby.” But this was not simply a case of James underperforming. Vanbrugh more than deserved their draw, and showed just how far they have come in a very short space of time.

And with the seemingly invincible James team's winning run brought to an abrupt end, second-placed Alcuin - who's game this week was called off due to a Derwent player shortage - climb to the top of the Emperor's College Rugby Championship.

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