The team were greeted with the sight of “Lee Briers” on arrival at Thatto Heath’s clubhouse. Hopefully the mutual inspiration gained from this chance meeting would have the right bearing on both teams results on the day!!
The team prepared well before the game and from the off fired into the opposition who were man for man, one of the physically biggest teams we have faced this season. Chances were spurned to open the scoring in the first 15 mins and a bit of indiscipline allowed the Crusaders field position following back to back penalties. This led to a sustained period of pressure by Thatto but the lads stood strong and made the tackles that had to be made. After a brief respite and ”another penalty”, Thatto tried to move the ball left early in the tackle count. Little stepped up reading the play, intercepted and galloped 50m to the posts to open the score with Radley tagging on the extras to leave the half time score 0 – 6.
The second half started in similar vein, but gradually SOAP began to win the field position battle and after a disallowed try due to the poor pitch markings, SOAP struck after a scrum. The ball was shifted through hands left and Radley straightened and held the Thatto winger before passing wide to Perrin who plunged over in the corner 0 – 10. The team now started to fully express themselves, but were briefly pegged back by a fine try in the left corner 4 – 10. This was the only minor blip on the day and the team undaunted, regained their composure to score 2 great tries by Williams with a terrific conversion by Clutterbuck from near the touchline and a typical effort from distance by Spedding. Thatto contributed in no small way to a fine and keenly contested game and were a credit to themselves, their club, their coaches and parents. Defensively the team were awesome today with the forwards contributing massively to the tackle count which is really pleasing and the composure, speed and footwork shown around the ruck area when in possession ultimately won the game. Well done all!!
Team:
Perrin, Whittaker, Little, Spedding, Comer, Radley, Taylor, Jepson, Clutterbuck, Millington, Sinton, Stapleton, Chilton, Owen, Thomason, Jennings, Williams and Rice.
Tries:
Little, Perrin, Williams and Spedding.
Goals:
Radley and Clutterbuck.
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