It was pleasant to welcome

London Scottish and their vibrant band of travelling supporters to

Cross Green on Saturday. Scottish are a club with a great heritage

and tradition. They were also one of the first victims of the

potential vagaries of the professional era. In 1999 the club went

into administration and then, along with Richmond, were taken over by

London Irish to form a much-vaunted “super club.” The rump of

London Scottish re-formed as an amateur club and started out in the

Hertfordshire and Middlesex Division 1 (level 9.) One may ask what

the RFU did in the face of this crass commercialism and vulgar

plutocracy: the answer (predictably) is that t hey did damn all!

Since this demise, Scottish have achieved six promotions in nine

years and before Saturday were just below Esher in second place in

the National Division One. They obviously provide a shining example

of how to resurrect a club brought to its knees by forces beyond its

control.

Thus, all rugby fans will

wish London Scottish well – but not when they are facing Otley at

Cross Green! The match started half-an-hour late, apparently because

Scottish thought it would be a 3.00 pm kick off. This intelligence

failure didn’t seem to upset their players very much and the game

started with unrelenting Scottish pressure. A penalty conceded at a

ruck after just five minutes gave them an early 3-0 lead. Two minutes

later they won a scrum against the head, chipped the ball into space,

set up a flowing three-quarters’ move and their winger was over in

the corner. The try was converted and Otley were already 10-0 down.

Otley could find no

answer to the Scottish power-play up front and crisp ball play in the

backs. After 10-minutes the Scottish scored again. Otley conceded

another penalty; Scottish found touch and from the line out launched

a series of grinding mauls driving Otley ever nearer their own try

line. When Scottish released the ball to their backs, a gap was soon

found and the winger swooped over in the corner. Again the try was

converted and after only ten minutes Otley were 17-0 down and facing

a heavy defeat.

London Scottish, and

their fans, started to celebrate already. One of their contingent

“treated” the crowd to a bagpipe sonata throughout the game. As

his team strode into a huge lead, his playing became brisker and more

triumphant, with a loud rendition of “Scotland the Brave.” A pep

talk from captain Howard Parr motivated the Otley players to tighten

up their play and for the next ten minutes Otley withstood the

Scottish pressure bravely.

After 20 minutes Otley

managed an excursion into Scottish territory. A penalty kick set up a

good line out opportunity. Parr drove the ball on and then set up the

backs. Left-winger Mark Kirby entered the line at a good angle and

sprinted through the defence. He just reached the line before the

final tackle grounded him; the try was converted superbly by James

Murray and Otley could see a glimmer of light as they narrowed the

gap to 17-7. Five minutes later Scottish were harried into committing

an handling error and the ball went to ground. Otley hacked on and

centre Ollie Denton swooped to dribble skilfully towards the Scottish

line. With perfect timing, he gathered the ball and went over by the

posts. Murray converted and Otley were well back in the game at

14-17. The piper sounded a little fractious!

After 30 minutes Otley

astonishingly took the lead. A break by Ollie Steadman set up a ruck

from which Otley launched a crisp three-quarters’ move. Again,

Denton burst onto the scene to take the final pass and glide over for

a try. Murray’s conversion put Otley 21-17 ahead. The piper started

to play a mournful funeral dirge! For the rest of the half, Otley

tackled soundly in the face of strong Scottish pressure. Otley went

into the dressing room for the half time break with a four point

lead, but how much had the effort taken out of them, and how would

they cope with another 40 minutes of this attrition?

Five minutes into the

second half Otley conceded a penalty. London Scottish, so keen to run

the ball at will in the early exchanges, now paid Otley the

compliment of going for goal. Their excellent goal kicker Neale (the

English Counties full back) made no mistake, and the lead was cut to

the wafer-thin 21-10.The impetus now lay with London Scottish (the

piper certainly seemed to think so) but Otley held out. Only after

twenty relentless minutes of second half pressure did London

Scottish take the lead. For the only time in the game, Otley’s

tackling let them down and Scottish broke through a seemingly

exhausted and beaten defence. At last Scottish went back in the lead

at 27-21.

Otley refused to surrender

and came back into the game. However, the penalty count stated to

mount massively against them and Scottish took full advantage of this

to peg Otley back. In the 70th

minute disaster struck. Chris Walker was sin-binned and Otley were

down to 14 men for virtually the whole of the remainder of the match.

Penalty after penalty was conceded in an attempt to stem the tide and

after 75 minutes it all looked over. Scottish scored another

converted try; Otley were 21-34 down with only five minutes left and

only fourteen men on the field. The piper celebrated with “Flower

of Scotland” and, simultaneously, a group of Scottish fans below

the main stand celebrated with a raucous and phenomenally tuneless

version of “My Home in Aberdeen.”

It looked as though

Otley’s sterling efforts would all be for nought – no bonus point

for keeping the margin below 8 and none for scoring four tries.

Sometimes there can be little justice in this game.

Then, on the 75th

minute, Otley were at last awarded a penalty. The ball found touch

and the line out was won cleanly. Howard Parr took the ball on and

then released the backs. Full back Chris Georgiou took a neat pass

and sprinted through a surprised Scottsih defence. A great conversion

kick from Murray narrowed the score to 28-34. Both bonus points were

now on the cards – and very thoroughly deserved.

The match was entering its

climax. Scottish were content with the score and clearly hoping for

the final whistle. The piper sounded agitated. Walker returned to the

fray in stoppage time, which was rapidly running out. The last move

of the game came with Otley having ball in hand; they knew they

mustn’t lose possession and must go for glory. A smooth and rapid

move saw Kirby again having the line in sight over on the left-wing.

The cover defence frantically converged on him, but he had just

enough speed left to inch his way over the line for a vital try. The

score stood at a tantalising 34-33 to London Scottish. The conversion

kick was right out in the corner and could not have been more

difficult. The pressure on James Murray was huge. He struck the ball

sweetly; it went straight towards the goal; it went over the bar and

dissected the uprights. The touch-judges raised their flags, the

referee blew his final whistle and Otley had beaten the might of

London Scottish 35-34 in one of the most exciting and even incredible

matches ever seen at Cross Green.

The Otley players and

their supporters celebrated hugely. Aberdeen seemed further away than

ever – and the piper shut up!

This was a great victory

from a team that never gave in and never stopped believing in

themselves. All the players were heroes, but special mention must go

to four of them. Mark Kirby scored two excellent tries under great

pressure. Ollie Denton scored two, and this season has improved

dramatically almost week by week. James Murray kicked well all day,

but his winning conversion will live in the memory for a long time –

he showed excellent technique, total focus, and above all great

strength of caharcter as he calmly won the match. Finally, there was

Howard Parr, who always led the team from the front and proved as

inspirational as ever.

Can Otley avoid

relegation? It must be accepted that the two defeats by main rivals

Cinderford have proved very damaging and possibly fatal. However

there are some winnable matches coming up and if Otley play like this

for the rest of the season, anything is possible. It will certainly

be a great shame if Otley do not preserve the Division One status

this match showed them to so richly deserve.

One unsatisfactory note

should be raised – the crowd was only a few hundred; the quality of

rugby and the amazing excitement warranted a full-house. Whatever

alternative attractions the good folk of Otley found for themselves

on Saturday afternoon, very few can have had so absorbing and

thrilling a time as those of us at the rugby.