OORUFC 1stXV 12 pts vs Roundhegians 37 pts
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ROUNDHEGIANS A 45 – OLD OTLIENSIANS A 7
With unavailability and calls from the first
team, ‘Ensians took the field with a very much depleted team to face strong
opposition who had beaten them at home earlier in the season. From the off
the home side threw the ball about and the visitors’ defence was tested for
long periods before they managed to mount an attack themselves. In the
scrums the ‘Ensians front row of Tom Twist, Ross Myers and Chris Myers
competed well and managed to take their own ball. The problem was that it
came back slowly and enabled the ‘Hegians back row to harass half backs
Peter Boultby and Neil Barlow and force scrambled clearances which resulted
in speedy counter-attacks.
In the first half, good open rugby and support play by Roundhegians produced
three tries and with two conversions giving them a comfortable 19 – 0 lead
at the break. In the second half, ‘Ensians continued to struggle for clean
possession apart from some good lineout work from Alan Garnett and locks
Andy Wood and Andy Bower worked hard against a big well-drilled pack. A rare
back move from the visitors saw the ball move swiftly to winger Darren
Cooley who outpaced the cover to score near the posts to take the score to
19 – 7 with the conversion by Matt Tenniswood.
Any hopes of a revival were dashed when the home side immediately responded
with two tries and a conversion to take the score to 31 – 7 on 55 minutes.
Although ‘Ensians continued to defend valiantly, too often the defence was
caught out of position with kicks through and two more tries were added by
the home side. With conversions, this lifted the final score to 45 – 7 as
the final whistle went. Fielding a weakened side, ‘Ensians competed well in
parts, but they had no answer to the pace and all-round organisation of the
home side.
Report supplied by John Harrison
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