And a Happy New Year to all our readers. This game was a wake-up call to the Exiles on what was a cold and wet day up at the Meads.

The Exiles, currently top of the table, welcomed Weybridge Vandals for our first league match of 2017. The Exiles started by kicking off down the hill and immediately got an indication of the Vandal’s game plan – using a big physical pack to pummel the Chipstead defence. For the first 10 minutes or so the hosts had to weather a relentless barrage of Vandal’s attacks.

For both sides, during this initial period, the Backs were somewhat superfluous to proceedings. Finally, Chipstead started to assert themselves and, after 15 minutes, opened up the Vandals’ defence for a try out on the wing (5-0). Our advantage was short lived and after 18 minutes the visitors were on the scoreboard themselves (5-5). However, for the rest for the first half, Chipstead were in the ascendancy; and three minutes later we had reasserted our lead (10-5).

However, this final third of the half provided the template for how the Exiles managed to lose the game; as our decision making on the pitch was less than optimal. Defensively both sides were equally matched in the Forwards but on too many occasions we did not exploit back-line overlaps; with white line fever or machismo dictating an individualistic style of play when a pass to a team-mate could have added another couple of tries to our score line. So, the half ended with the Exiles defending a narrow 10-5 lead.

The second half saw a continuation of the Vandal’s Forwards led approach; and whilst this made for a competitive game, a spectacle of open, flowing rugby it was not. This was frustrating, attritional stuff, with the Exiles soaking up the pressure but missing opportunities to capitalise on their breakouts when they came. Eventually, on the 57th minute, a period of sustained Weybridge pressure inside the Exiles’ 22 lead to a converted try between the posts (10-12). The final three minutes saw the Exiles camped inside the Vandals’ red zone; however, finally, failure to exploit a penalty opportunity - which seemed to typify the Exiles’ day - saw the game end with a win to the visitors.

Well done to Weybridge. For the Exiles, hopefully this narrow loss will act as a catalyst to think more about how to close out a game when on the ascendancy and when to better exploit opportunities. Training next Sunday is going to be interesting. See you there.