30th January 2010
Guys, Kings & St Thomas’s Hospital vs Anchorians
Following last weeks match
cancellation A’s were in desperate need of a win against Guys and St Thomas’s
Hospital RFC this weekend. Unfortunately
the poor weather this week left the pitch waterlogged and extremely heavy; not
that this decreased the enthusiasm of the team as they paddled out onto the
pitch.
Guys kicked off with A’s playing
into the sun and very quickly demonstrated that they were keen to even the
score after their defeat at A’s earlier in the season but with their first kick
dropping out of play the first scrum was set up on the centre. A’s forwards pressed into the scrum and
forced an error by the home team No 8 and an early penalty for Anthony O’Brien
(AOB) which successfully found touch making around 20 metres into their
half. Ricky Deamer threw the ball
accurately to find Richie Kyle who dropped to the ground and a rolling maul was
set up making 5-metres before being stopped by the opposition, A’s reset and
pushed on another 5-metres before the ball came out to AOB then Banner-Martin
and then skipper Davison before being re-cycled to AOB who attempted a chip and
chase which went straight out on the drop.
Guys successfully took the line and using quick ball and rapid feet were
quickly on the attack piling through the A’s defence before Davison put in a
crunching tackle to stop the advance.
Guys set up a ruck over the ball and using quick ball fed out along the
line before knocking the ball on resulting in a scrum. With a defiant push we drove into the scrum
and won the ball allowing AOB to take a clearance kick well into their half to
find touch. Guys won the line out and
ran with ball in hand back into the A’s half before a bone crushing tackle by
Alistair Parker resulted in the sin bin and an easy penalty for the home team
for the first points of the half. This
set the scene for the rest of the half despite good tackles by George Webb and
“Mad” Mick McLorne the home team registered
a further 24 points to end the half at 27-0 in what was an uninspiring half for
A’s
.
The half time talk obviously made
a difference as A’s kicked off with an attitude to get some points. Very soon that came to fruition as Andy
Pritchard dove over the line to score A’s first points of the game with an
unconverted try from a driving maul closely followed by a 3-point penalty to
AOB. For a while play circled the
halfway line with both teams playing quick ball and running with ball in hand
in an effort to break the defence. A’s
were like a different team and put their bodies on the line time after time to
prevent the home team taking advantage of their knowledge of the pitch to score
more points. Skipper Davison making
several good runs through the centre and scrum half Rob Small popping quick
ball from the breakdowns to make good ground into their territory. When they did get the ball Guys were very
quick and were always keen to run the ball but paid the price with thumping
tackles coming in from Pritchard, Parker and McLorn. A’s were still on the back foot and tried
ringing some changes bring Dan Perry for Deamer and Richie Collins on for
Kenton Parbutt. Fresh legs made a
difference and A’s got back into the swing Keith White following Parker and
picking up loose ball to score an unconverted try in the corner. With the final score standing at 27-13 it was
an unconvincing performance by A’s but they can take consolation in that they
didn’t allow the home team to score any points the second half.
Anchorians Man of Match was “Mad”
Mick McLorn for the shear effort he put into each and every tackle and his work
in the scrum.
Next weeks game Saturday 06
February at Cranbrook away.
Report written by Clive Davison