By Charlie Norton
The following article appeared in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday 14 December 2005.
WELLINGTON 14
TONBRIDGE 15
As a frosty dusk settled on Wellington School's first-team pitch, an epic contest against Tonbridge provided a fitting finale for one of the biggest schoolboy fixtures of the year.
In the dying seconds of Saturday's game of furious commitment played in front of 300 spectators, centre Johnny Farmer scored an enthralling try to win the game and enable Tonbridge to achieve the extraordinary feat of staying unbeaten for a second season in succession.
The game's denouement could not have been better theatre. With six minutes to go, Wellington were awarded a controversial penalty try for persistent infringement and looked as though they would win 14-10 to ruin the party. Tonbridge fought back, only to lose their hooker, Dom Hodson, with a dislocated and broken ankle.
It took 10 minutes for an ambulance to come on to the pitch and for oxygen to be administered to Hodson, who was then carried off. Yet when the game restarted, Tonbridge overcame both the upset and the long break and Wellington had to repel wave after wave of attacks. With a minute left, the hosts were awarded a scrum on the halfway line, which the referee said would be the last play of the match.
"The game was in our grasp," Wellington coach Graeme Owton said. "All we had to do was win that scrum and clear the ball to touch. But we were penalised for engaging too early."
Free kick to Tonbridge. Crash-ball, ruck, crash-ball, ruck. Down the line the ball went and the slick handling of fly-half David Whitehead put Farmer through a hole in midfield. He was hit by a tackle 20 yards out which dislodged the ball but juggled with it behind his back and just as he slowed to regather, two more tackles sent him crashing over the line to score in the darkness.
Tonbridge had gone 22 matches unbeaten, scoring 664 points and conceding just 188, in two seasons on one of the hardest circuits in the country, which includes opponents of the calibre of Dulwich, Harrow and Radley.
"The game had everything," Owton said. "What an advert for schoolboy rugby, but gut-wrenching for us."
Wellington, who perhaps have the strongest recent record of any school in the country, did not have a vintage season this year but the traditional intensity of the fixture with Tonbridge (there were 20 XVs competing between the schools) meant it was always a game in which the visitors' unbeaten record would be at risk. Wellington tackled well and competed ferociously at the breakdown, while their No 8, Alex Lee, showed tremendous speed to slice through the midfield for a try that put them 7-3 up at half-time.
Tonbridge, however, had an incredible work ethos under the leadership of prop Billy Moss, and Farmer's mazy running brought him the first of his two tries when he cut back after a miss-move in the centre.
Graeme Gales, who coaches Tonbridge with Nathan Leamon, said: "I always thought we were in with a chance at the end. But it was magical. What a game."
Wellington: G Jones, M Douglas, C Gower, D Sanders, T Loizides, E Lewis-Pratt, S Lowden, M Samea, J MacManus, F Pritchard-Smith (E Smith 50). C Cripps (J Fisher 55), R Smith-Bernal, M Potter, D Cervino (capt), A Lee.
Tries: Lee, penalty try. Cons: Douglas 2
Tonbridge: B James, N Barrett, J Farmer, E Johnstone, H Davies (C Dodds 18), D Whitehead, J Tennant, B Moss (capt), D Hodson (A Smith 66), F Johnson, N Lording, H Hofman (W Soutar 25-35), C Pierce, T Watt, J Flynt.
Tries: Farmer 2. Cons: Whitehead. Pen: Whitehead.
Referee: R Mikebech (London Society).