Old Tiffinians 1st XV have made a tremendous start to the 2019/20 season, winning all three of their opening games. The side have accumulated 14 out of a possible 15 points and currently sit just one point off the top of London South West 3. This tally is made even more impressive by the fact that two of these games, Gosport and Fareham and United Services Portsmouth, took place away from home in the depths of Hampshire. Nonetheless, the team has shown phenomenal heart and great commitment on the field to come away with some very impressive early season results.

The first assignment was a trip to Gosport and an inaugural fixture between Gosport and Fareham RFC and Old Tiffinians. A severe availability crisis, something that has been a feature of the season so far, struck at the very time of asking. Luckily Andy Staples was planning to be in the Portsmouth area on family business and he went on to star at scrumhalf giving onlookers an 80-minute masterclass. A fantastic debut from Jack Corcoran at loose head prop steadied the scrum on a day where the Old Tiffs front five scored all the tries. In front of a noisy home crowd, who obviously expected their side to come away with a convincing win having come down from the league above last season, the OT’s defence held firm. Current skipper Tom Carvill and former captain Jaewon Jang (2009?) scored tries as well as a rather fortuitous effort from Mike O’Connell who effected a grubber with his knee and proceeded to dot down. Sharif Dougramaji (2015) took over the kicking duties from where Gavin Griffith (2018) had left off last year and the job was done. OT’s had silenced the home crowd and come away with a 20-11 away win thanks to a heroic defensive effort in the second half.

At the time of writing this early season summary, we are currently experiencing an incredible deluge of rain, so it seems implausible that only two weeks ago Old Tiffs took on Warlingham at Grists in over 25 degrees heat. Talk of cancelling games for incredibly dry and dangerously hard pitches has since been swapped for news of flash flooding but the conditions did enable Tiffs to spread the ball in attack. The first half saw a great scrum move which enabled Pedro Campos Silva to run 40m and score in the corner off first phase. Indomitable defence and two penalties from Sharif helped back this up but repeated infringements at the offside line allowed Warlingham back into the half. 11-11 at half time. The second half Tiffs were far the better side and a star performance from Sharif, scoring two tries, led them to a 38-18 victory in front of the home fans.

For the second time in three weeks the boys then faced a trip down the A3 to Portsmouth. Old foes USP awaited on their incredibly vast but incredibly nice grass pitch. The boys found themselves immediately under the cosh and Will Nichols (2013) was sent to the sin bin after one too many team offences. USP eventually scored after camping in the Tiffs 22, but Tiffs knew that the wind would be on their side in the second period. The boys managed to go in at half time only two points down, again aided by a freak try from Mike O’Connell as he intercepted from the scrum and trundled over. It was more hearty effort than clean execution in the second half but two tries from Josh Graham (2014) helped the side pick up an impressive bonus point win, outpointing their opponents 35-26.

The boys now look forward to welcoming Basingstoke to Grists on October 5 before yet another trip to Portsmouth in what is some quite outrageous fixture organising by the RFU. A strong start means there is plenty of optimism for the season ahead as Old Tiffs look to top last year’s fourth-placed finish.

New players always welcome. Please contact player registrar Josh Graham (joshuagraham99@gmail.com /07983354621) or captain Tom Carvill…
Training at Battersea Millenium Park Wednesday’s 8pm.