Match report by Tom Hardiman:

From what started off looking promising with 17 confirmed including 6 props by Thursday afternoon it was a bit disappointing when it came to Saturday to find that only 13 of the confirmed 17 were in attendance, we only had 3 props and Mark (fresh off the boat Paddy) Lordan was infact a centre/fullback and not a prop.
In the spirit of goodwill Dave Clarke dusted off his boots for another ‘last game’ for GWR to bring us up to 14, Mark Ruttledge capped his 35th year as a GWR player and we welcomed back James Gill at hooker.
The game kicked off and less that 5 minutes into it we were a try down, this was basically the rule of play throughout the whole first half. We lacked organisation, tenacity and awareness in the first half as we were not holding our line not making tackles and when we did have the ball we were without support, going in as a single player and getting turned over every time by a very good rucking side. The only positives I could see from the first half was within the forward set plays, our scrum was without a back row player and we still managed to hold our own ball and offer fierce competition against the head with a strong front row & our lineout was the most dominating it has been all season. Phil Daly won 90% of our ball throughout the game and about 60% of theirs, the West London pack knew where the ball was going every time but could not deal with Phil.
After a poor first half Alex ‘Gaffer’ Ormrod, Mossy & Mark gave us some stern words and as soon as the whistle blew for that second half it was a different game. From the off huge hits were made by Mark Lordan, Chris Brown, Dave McMahon basically the whole team started breaking bones. Marks decision for a quicker put in the scrum paid off as he made a break supported by Mark Lordan, at this point GWRs continuity and support was exceptional at the breakdown. About 7 minutes into the second half just inside West Londons 22 Tiny Tom passed the ball to Bigger Tom who hit a gap in the line and a fullback and charged over the line to score his first try in 2 years. The big guy did admit after the game that it was held up but still takes all credit for being GWRs top try scorer of 2013 so far.
As the game continued West London were finding it hard to deal with GWRs rush defence and huge tackles were being put in by Don Williams, Mark Lordan and Dave McMahon but West London managed to catch us out and spread the ball wide quickly to a rapid winger who even Danny Wallace couldn’t catch to get their only score of the second half.
GWR didn’t put their heads down and went straight back at them again, big runs from Phil Daly and Don Williams set us back up in their 22 again. Little wiggles from Mossy and passes out to Dave, Gerrard & Chris couldn’t get us over the line again.
This was a display of the guts from GWR and in the second half you would not have noticed us playing with less men.
Man of The Match: Phil Daly, great running, scrummaging and catching in the lineout.

FT West London II 50 – 5 GWR
HT (45) – (0)

1. Stephen Feely
2. James Gill
3. Tom Hardiman
4. Phil Daly 5. Don Williams
6. Mark Lordan
7. Mark Ruttledge
8. Vacant
9. Tiny Tom
10. Mossy
11. Gerrard Dineen
12. Danny Wallace
13. Dave McMahon
14. Dave Clarke
15. Chris Brown

Great Western Railway RFC

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