40 - 10

URFC travelled to Stockholm looking to record their second win of the season and also beat rivals Hammarby for the first time in many years. Hammarby, who had been moved down a series due to leaving a walkover at the end of last season, were looking to atone for the disappointment of losing to Exiles barbarians in their first game last weekend. Hammarby even boasted former Pleb and ‘Back of the year 2014’ Freddie Everitt at fullback.

Even though Exiles first team was at home, Hammarby decided to play on the larger of the two pitches at Årstafältet. This suited URFC down to the ground and gave them an opportunity to use both their fitness and ball handling skills. Starting up the hill and into the wind URFC began the game promisingly, forcing Hammarby into numerous handling errors through a very tight and aggressive defence. This tactic paid dividends and for the first 30 mins Hammarby rarely got out of their 22.

Unfortunately URFC were unable to turn pressure into points and a combination of running in too high and getting held up with the ball, and a great difficulty in winning their own scrum meant that they rarely managed to threaten Hammarby’s line. Small defensive errors started to slip into URFC’s game and Hammarby had the pace and enterprise to run in 30 unanswered points before halftime in a devastating 10 min period. Each try came from distance and involved at least one missed tackle from the previously solid URFC defence. This was a major blow to URFC’s chances of winning the game and effectively took the game out of their reach.

URFC regrouped at halftime and with the wind and the slope in their favour set out to claw back the 30 point deficit. The second half started as the first with Hammarby pinned back in their 22. This time however URFC managed to get their game flowing and cracks were beginning to appear in the Hammarby defence. Time and time again URFCs’ pods made ground and sucked in the Hammarby defence with only some poor decision making and stubborn Hammarby defence keeping URFC from scoring that decisive first try. Even when nr 10 Luke Perrin had to go off with a head injury this didn’t affect their flow and captain Erik Wärnberg slotted in perfectly to the standoff role in Luke’s absence. Nr 8 Stewart Devine was the first to go close and was agonisingly held up on the line by some last ditch Hammarby defence. The breakthrough was soon to come however. After wave upon wave of great attacking play by both the forwards and backs the ball was shipped left to Stewart Devine who drew the last man and sent nr 3 Ryan Mintz in in the corner for a fantastic team try. With their tails up, URFC went looking for more and after some great breaks through their forward pods they again found ourselves on the Hammarby line. This time there was a different outcome however with Ryan Mintz driving in for his second try of the day from close range, assisted by replacement hooker Gabe Andrews. With time ticking away and still 20 points down URFC brought on their bench. Unfortunately in the last 10 mins Hammarby scored two more tries of their own, again running in from distance, which made the final score 40-10.  

In terms of possession and territory URFC probably had over 80% of each but at the end of the day it’s the final score that matters. Some poor tackling combined with some very good Hammarby runners took the game away from URFC and left a bitter taste in the mouth come final whistle time. Plenty of positives can be taken from the performance but at the end of the day it was a bitter loss.

Congratulations to Johannes Malmström and Adriaan Myburgh who made their first team debuts and played out of their skins. Thanks to every member of the squad for turning up and playing with heart and passion. On Thursday URFC have a chance to get their season back on track when they meet Exiles Barbarians at Fyrisfjädern, KO 1800.