Royal Arsenal Summer League ’18 Match Report – 1st Fixture

Royal Arsenal 9 Kool and the Gang 5

The season got underway proper for Royal Arsenal this week with their game against Kool and the Gang.And while the Royals struggled to a draw in the same fixture last year, they had no such problems this time round.

RA had to kick off a bit of rust early in the game and conceded a pair of sloppy tries in the opening minutes.But from there, they recovered to put their foot on the gas and started racking up the tries.

Royal Arsenal sliced through KATG’s defensive line regularly and managed to offload the ball to Woolwich Arsenal loanees Katy and Ashley to get the scoreboard ticking over.

Kyle, in his last game for the side before his summer hiatus, was at his attacking best, gaining big ground a regular basis. But even more impressive was the team defence with Abbey and Jesse excelling as they shut down KATG attacks, along with Ali and Rhianna darting around on a rum-fueled rampage after two weeks in the Caribbean.

The pace of the game slowed down in the second half on a warm summer evening and RA finished the fixture comfortable victors.

Woolwich Arsenal 11 – Tagalog 13

After an easy win in their first match of the season, Woolwich Arsenal suffered a narrow defeat to the explosive Tagalog in their second game.

Despite racking up the points once again in an impressive attacking display, a lack of defensive organisation left Tagalog’s pace merchants too much room to run through, and they wasted no time in piling on the points.

However, despite a tough first half, WA would not be kept down and showed huge resilience to mount a comeback in the second period. Ashley again was unstoppable close to the try line, tallying up even more points to keep the game close.

And towards the end of time, another darting score brought WA within a point at 10-9. But a couple of defensive miscues left Tagalog’s speedy wingers enough space to run in a couple more tries and put the game out of reach.

Despite the loss, there was still plenty of talent on show from Woolwich and with another week or two to warm up into the new season, they’re still a good bet to be contending for top of the table honours.

Report by Joel Watson

 

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Summer League details HERE

 

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What’s its like to captain a tag team for Royal Arsenal Rugby – Highs and Lows!

By Joel Watson

After taking the reins as captain of Royal Arsenal this season, I assumed that the only change would be that I’d play rock paper scissors at the start of each game to decide who kicked off.

But actually, I’ve ended up taking the role a lot more seriously than I thought I would – as my rapidly receding hairline will attest. Within the first week or two, I started taking every try we conceded personally and I spent a couple of hours agonising over the game in my head after it finished.

In the previous season, my first with the club, I’d largely stuck myself on the wing and focussed on playing as well as I could each week. Even if we lost (and we did lose a lot last season) I could still be quite happy with my performance if I scored a couple of tries.

But after Royal Arsenal’s first loss of the early summer league against Beasts from the East in week 2, I found myself totally obsessing over the performance of the whole team, with what I’d done in the game a complete after-thought.

After that, ahead of the games, I’d try and think up tactics and strategies that usually manifested in me yelling ‘RUN F****** STRAIGHT’ or ‘PASS THE BALL’ as the game went on.

I’ve also found myself playing a lot more centrally than before as I try to lead the line in defence and spread the ball around in attack. It’s meant playing more of a supporting role in attack, but hopefully it’s made it easier for the other members of the team to get over the line.

The plus side of captaincy has been having a fantastic team around me all season who’ve given their all, rain or shine, every single week. It’s hard to be too annoyed with defeats when you know your teammates have given 100%.

The high points of the season has to be the last-second draw we rescued in week 1 against Kool and the Gang, with Andrew scoring a brilliant try on the last play of the game – and the closely-fought win we had against Steve Thorpe Destroyers a few weeks later was also amazing, where we played so well defensively and managed to scrap our way over the line with a brilliant team effort.

Despite suffering a few losses along the way, every week I’ve seen signs of improvement from the team – plenty of whom had never played before this year – and I’ve got no doubt that with another season under our belts, we’ll be challenging for a place in the championship game once again next season.

*Joel Watson joined Royal Arsenal Rugby January of this year. He was fast tracked to captainship due to his sheer enthusiasm, know how and remarkable team spirit. We look forward to him staying on as captain for "Royal Arsenal' next season.

Royal Arsenal Rugby (Tag) Early Summer League 2018 Standings – East Ham RFC (Updated 07.06.18)

UPDATED 07.06.18

 

 

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Royal Arsenal Teams Fixture Details East London League – June 13th 2018

PLEASE BE THERE 30-40MINS BEFORE KICK OFF FOR VITAL WARM UPS AND TEAM PREP

LOCATION OF LEAGUE

DETAILS OF 8 WEEK LEAGUE FIXTURE EARLY SUMMER TAG LEAGUE

STANDINGS CURRENTLY – LEAGUE TABLE UPDATED 07.06.19

Royal Arsenal Early Summer League ’18 Match Report – (Wed June 6th)

Woolwich Arsenal 8 Tag ‘em and Bag ‘em 4

Woolwich Arsenal knew what they had to do to get into the early summer league Championship game next week: win or draw against the best team in the league.

Not an easy job then, but the side captained by Johnny Hoskins rose to the task magnificently.

From the start, Woolwich’s defence was rock solid, not giving an inch against a side who’ve average almost 10 points a game this season.

Jules, Katy and Johnny repeatedly formed an unstoppable wall against a range of attacks.

The attacking effort was good too, with quick passing and darting runs, Woolwich took the lead early in the first half and followed it up with two more tries to make the score 4-1 going into the break.

The pressure ramped up yet again in the second period, with TEBE using methods both foul and fair to try and break through the defensive line.

Luckily WA’s defence remained disciplined in the face of some aggression and over-physicality.

As usual, the pace of Ovie, Errol and Zarine caused plenty of problems for Tag em and Bag em and it wasn’t long before WA racked up six points.

Eventually the pressure told and TEBE started picking up some tries of their own. But they couldn’t manage a girl try and that proved crucial as the score sat at 4-6 going into the final stages.

After withstanding some more attacks, Woolwich put the game to bed, with a spectacular effort from Ashley; withstanding an aggressive wedgie to shovel the ball to Jenny, who darted in for the try, leaving the score at 8-4 and WA in the final next week.

It was a thrilling game from start to finish as Ashley claimed a well-deserved (wo)man of the match and Woolwich Arsenal proved once again that they can mix it up with the best teams in the league

 

Royal Arsenal 6 Tagalong 18

Royal Arsenal didn’t play so good this week.

 

By Joel Watson – RARC Member/Player/Club Match Reporter

 

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CURRENT STANDINGS LEAGUE TABLE HERE

Next Fixture JUNE 13TH HERE

Full Fixture For Rest Of Early Summer League 2018

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Royal Arsenal Early Summer League ’18 Match Report – (Wed May 30th)

Royal Arsenal 7 Tag em and Bag em 10

In one of the more heated games – literally and figuratively – of the league season, Royal Arsenal narrowly lost to league leaders Tag em and Bag em on Wednesday.

RA started strong, taking the early lead with some fast-paced attacks and held up well defensively, despite the heat and humidity that made the game an uphill struggle.

Kyle and George showed off their attacking edge as usual, cutting through the saggy bags (or whatever they’re called) with some nice attacking lines.

TEBE had plenty of attacking flair of their own though, and levelled the score up to 3-3 as the teams trudged off for halftime and well-earned drink.

RA struggled to get going in the second period, and conceded a flurry of tries just after the break, swiftly going down 7-3.

But showing the resilience that’s been the trademark of the team this season, they fought back with scores of their own, including yet another try for Jenny.

The score was 8-7 going into the closing stages of the game before a girl score sealed the win for TEBE and resigned Royal Arsenal to the first competitive loss they’ve had since the second week of the season.

Still, it was a spirited performance from a quickly-improving side, and the Royals are still in contention to be in the championship game by the end of the season.

Woolwich Arsenal 3 – Beasts from the East 1

After a number of misfires against Beasts from both Arsenal sides in recent months, WA finally broke the losing streak against their East London rivals.

Right from the opening whistle, Woolwich were on the front foot, moving the ball along the line easily and taking the lead with loanee Kyle breaking the line and opening the scoring.

Considering the slick attacking on show from WA, it’s surprising they didn’t hit double digit scores in the first half alone.

Ashley, Ovie in Jules continuously troubled the Beasts defence with some bursting runs, and were backed up by an immovable defence that hardly missed a tag all game.

However, despite having the lionshare of the ball and looking better in attack, some marginal fouls and goal-line spills meant WA couldn’t put the game to bed until the final whistle.

Luckily, the defence was even more impressive than the attack and the Beasts never looked likely to get back into the game once they went behind.

The win moves WA into third place in the league and needing just one more point to ensure they’re playing in the championship game in two weeks.

 

By Joel Watson – RARC Member/Player/Club Match Reporter

 

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CURRENT STANDINGS LEAGUE TABLE HERE

Next Fixture JUNE 6TH HERE

Full Fixture For Rest Of Early Summer League 2018

– UPDATES DAILY

 

Royal Arsenal Rugby Summer League Jun 20th-Aug 22,2018 (Provisional) Details – East Ham RFC

Location:

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Royal Arsenal Teams Fixture Details East London League – June 6th 2018

Fixture is Woolwich Arsenal vs  Tag ’em and Bag’em , 19:00, Wed June 6th at East London. at East London 3G Pitches

 

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Fixture is Royal Arsenal vs #Tagalong, at 19:45 on Wednesday June 6th at East London 3G Pitches

PLEASE BE THERE 30-40MINS BEFORE KICK OFF FOR VITAL WARM UPS AND TEAM PREP

LOCATION OF LEAGUE

DETAILS OF 8 WEEK LEAGUE FIXTURE EARLY SUMMER TAG LEAGUE

STANDINGS CURRENTLY – LEAGUE TABLE UPDATED 01.06.19