Old Streetonian’s RFC vets suffered their first loss in two years in difficult conditions on Saturday. Despite scoring an early penalty, they were overrun by a faster Haringey side who emerged 11-48 winners at the Hackney Marshes Centre.
The loss came in the semi-final of the Veterans Cup, a knockout competition created to allow those over 30 to continue playing the game with players their own age. “It means we get to come over here and not have to keep up with all the young whipper snappers when we want to get involved,” said team captain James Webb.
The windy conditions made for a very difficult game of rugby. Both sides struggled with handling errors early on and there was very little flow, with multiple scrums being awarded inside the opening 15 minutes of the contest.
It was Haringey who were able to take control of the stop and start first half with a pair of tries. Both were made through excellent breaks by the backs, their speed advantage really telling as a couple of missed tackles meant that the Old Street defence was broken and unable to catch up.
Chairman Richard Hay was on hand to support his club but bemoaned the lack of options on the bench.
“We had a squad of 23 this morning, but by kick off we were down to 17 and some were unable to stay for the full 80 on top of that.”
The lack of numbers caught up to the home side in the second half. Haringey were a constant threat with their pace and ability to break, and it wore down the Old Streetonian Vets as the away side began to run away with proceedings.
It was not long before the Onions were staring down defeat. Another missed tackle allowed the Haringey attack to break the lines and, despite a last-gasp effort from Nicholas Obileye, go over for the try that would all but secure the win for the visiting Rhinos.
However, there was a late consolation for the home side. On a testing afternoon they were able to score a try after some hard work by the forwards saw them drive the ball down the field and set up some good possession in the Haringey half before eventually powering the ball over the line.
“Of course we are disappointed, we always want to win every game. Despite the conditions we all had a lot of fun and would have loved to have made the final yet again, but it was not to be this time around,” said a battered and bruised Djamel Bruimaud.
The Old Streetonians number nine had opened the scoring on the day and despite his best efforts was unable to keep the Onions Vets team in the game. Both he and Nicholas Obileye have featured heavily for the third team this season and with their season over, relished the opportunity to have another chance at silverware even if they did come up a little short in the end.
