Match Report – Pumas v Ottomans & Badirkoy 26th April 2008

The weather conditions were foul – a strong breeze blowing diagonally across the pitch carrying a drizzly rain that hung in the air and soaked everything.

The match against the Ottomans began with a bright start from the Pumas. Playing from left to right strong Puma scrum pressure for the first 10 minutes or so kept the Ottomans back on their 22 and long kicks from the Ottoman fly half who had the advantage of the wind was their only means of clearing their lines. Good work in the lineout meant that the Puma’s retained possession and forced the Ottomans back repeatedly.

 However the Ottomans started to find their form and after 20 minutes or so the story was reversed. A good lineout steal on the half way line provided the Ottomans with the platform to create quick ball and only strong defence kept the Ottomans at bay. The pressure was intense and poor defensive kicking only served to make the Puma position worse. Only repeated Ottoman mistakes were allowing the Pumas any respite, the referee and linesmen doing well to spot Ottoman hands in the maul as they strove forward. Eventually the damn had to break and a smooth Ottoman backs move sent their winger clear with only the Puma fullback to beat. The attempted tackle was so high seagulls started to look worried. A penalty try was awarded, the full back sin-binned for 10 minutes and a difficult conversion, successfully taken, put the Ottomans 7 points ahead. The Ottomans were now in full flow and the Pumas now down to 14 men were fully stretched in defence. An open side pass after driving down the centre put the Ottoman outside half clean through but in his excitement he ran the ball out over the deadball line before putting down. The resulting 22 drop out from the Pumas was appalling and a Puma infringement in the resulting maul gave the Ottomans an easy 3 points for a 10-nil lead at half time.

The Pumas knew their school boy errors were putting themselves under pressure, they had to retain the ball in the pack and they had to ensure that the Ottoman fly-half was put under pressure.

With the wind behind them for the second half the Puma defensive kicks at last gained distance. However poor retaining of pack possession and some weak back tackling allowed the Ottomans space on the wing and another try was duly despatched and converted. Further errors started to permeate the side and another penalty this time for not releasing gave the Ottomans a 20 -0 lead. An Ottoman break down the left provided another try although the conversion was missed. The Pumas were tiring. A final penalty for going over the top on the Puma try line gave the Ottomans a 28-0 lead. Tempers had started to get a little frayed – the Ottoman attempts to dominate the match and the refusal of the Pumas to submit resulted in various incidents on the pitch in the last 10 minutes or so and a yellow card for Dinchan Kilercioglu didn’t help the cause. However Pumasa hung on and the Ottomans failed to score again. Throughout all of this game Sam Butcher had been outstanding – leading from the front and trying to take the ball to the Ottomans, one of the first in defence to make the tackle and all the time putting his body on the line for the team. He was deservedly awarded the man of the match by both sides.

Twenty minutes later the Pumas had to do it all again as Badirkoy had arrived at the ground. The conditions hadn’t improved, the Ottoman game had been extremely tough and the team was tired. Badirkoy are not a strong team. A fit Puma side would probably have run up four or five tries against them. Batuhan Oksuzal opened the scoring with a try wide left after a strong break from Mohammed Azari and Dinchan Kilercioglu almost converted from the touch line striking the cross bar. 5-0.

 Badirkoy were a strong physical side who wanted to give a good account of themselves. They made life hard for the Puma forwards who were exhausted from the previous match. Eventually the effort started to tell and the substitution of Dinchan in the second half meant the scrums went uncontested.

 Further substitutions were to follow as slowly the effort of the previous game took its toll. Special mention must go to Steve Knight who stepped up to the plate on the wing and has probably played himself into the first team through a bravura performance. He never missed a tackle and in the second half seemed to be everywhere on the pitch plugging the defensive gaps.

A second Puma try by Johnatan Nicholas after Halit Ozcan did everything except put the ball down and a successful conversion gave the very tired Pumas a 12-0 lead. The circumstances of the try obviously fired up Badirkoy who redoubled their efforts and tired Puma defence conceded 2 tries in the last 10 minutes of the match. The final score was 12-10 to the Pumas.

As a final word the Pumas would like to say a big thank you to the Ottomans for a fine Saturday night which was very entertaining and very much enjoyed by the whole team.

Simon Kiddle