It has long been established, in Ath 2nd team lore at least, that "last try wins". Certainly our victory over Market Harborough 3rd team at the end of March 2025, which some pedants dispute by pointing to the actual score line, came about by this long established tradition. So the question is, does that count for the season as well? Does "last win....well, win!"? If so, does this mean the Ath 2s actually won the league with the incredible and genuinely victorious performance they produced yesterday? I think we may leave the scholars, such as our very own Dr Johnstone, to debate this but it definitely means we won the league.

On the eve of the game, Belgrave has said they were short a couple of players and, in true Ath spirit, we arrived happy to lend them bodies to make it a fair contest. It turned out, however, that Belgrave's 1st XV opposition had turned up with just 13 so that game was to be played 13v13 and 2 Belgrave 1st XV players would come over and fill in the gaps in their second team - oh, the joy. Belgrave started very strongly; lots of hard, direct running that soon saw them on top. With the exception of a couple of good runs by Simon Mmari and a 50-22, the first half didn't show us at our best. Our lineout was not functioning and the Belgrave scrum was very dominant so little or no ball came to us from set piece and at the break we were 15-0 down. Once incident at the end of the first half, precipitated by Belgrave, may have been a turning point. At a lineout on their 5m line, one of their players managed to put his shoulder into Paddy's face (no foul play or bad intent, just a rugby incident) and so we lost out tight-head and the game had to go to uncontested scrums. We also made the decision to reduce our kicks for touch (given our lineout issues) and either tap and go, or kick for space. The results were...incredible (That's a Brian Butterfield reference for the uninitiated). The turnaround in performance was astounding. Simon with his running and last ditch tackles, Reuben, in only his second game, showing pace to burn and scoring 2 tries, Sean doing....well, just everything, and (if it's okay to say it) us playing a fairly clever kicking game and suddenly things started to look up. Belgrave did score one try out by the touchline when they struggled to penetrate through the middle, however Ath's heroic try-line defence where we kept out wave after wave of Belgrave man-mountains, followed by a couple of quick Ath tries and it's 20-17 and Belgrave heads are starting to waiver. Another try and it's 20-22 and Belgrave heads have dropped. Players with heads in hands; players remaining lying on the floor where they'd missed tackles on Reuben. The clock seemed to take forever to run down and we needed Simon M to put in another try-saver when the Belgrave 7 broke clear. Then, with 2 mins remaining we executed a near perfect S1 for Jordan to break through and out-pace the covering defence to put us 20-27 ahead. It wasn't over yet on the park, but I suspect it was in the heads of the 30 players on the pitch and one of the Belgrave big boys over stretched their support by getting isolated and our jackler won a penalty with the clock expired. A tap and kick to touch and it was all over bar the drinking. 20-27 win for The Ath 2s.
I've not written a match report in years, and I'm certain I will have missed lots of memorable moments (such as the reverse chip penalty to Sean). I also know I'm composing this in the NEWS section rather than the Match Report, but if this win isn't news, I don't know what is. Well done everyone. It was a pleasure to play with you in what is quite possibly my last regular appearance. After 22 years with the club, if that's the last game I ever get to play, it couldn't have been better. We did it for Jimmy and he would have been proud.