3rd XV Match Report

Date: Saturday 3rd October 2009

A Thursday night cancellation by Grammarians left us without a fixture. We posted on the fixture exchange and Millwall immediately picked us up. I checked them out they were on the back of 3 wins the most recent 89 - 0. This looked like a good test for our emerging side. With myself and Tony injured, Crompton unavailable and still missing Chris Hemingway, the youngsters were going to be put to the test.
 A large crowd had gathered on a windy mound in expectation of a good contest. Ross Osbourne leading on the pitch and myself and Tony taking a managerial roll. Within a minute the opposition took an early lead with a try in the corner. Our tackling not a patch on recent weeks. We come back with a converted try then extended our lead only for Millwall to come back again 12-10.
 I had moved Ross Court to 2 in the lineout and he was snatching a lot of ball. Casey got injured so on come the Welsh Wizard Wynn. Ross Osbourne also took a knock so we bought Sam on in an unfamiliar role of outside centre. The pack was working well new boy Damian hitting the rucks good and hard, Tom Maile started to control the game at 10 with great kicking and elusive running.
By half time we were in control 24:10 but Millwall were not ready to surrender targeting Crownie two players picked him up and dumped him resulting in a yellow card. We kept scoring but kept letting them back into the game with errors and some bad luck.
 Everyone played well but we need to work harder for all 80 minutes. Ross Court's work in the loose was phenomenal, Tom Maile elusive running and 3 trys bode well for the future but I thought Gooey's game was fantastic rock solid in the scrum, great lifting at 1 and chasing the kick off towards the end of the game and him and Crownie getting their first shows the commitment we all need to make for the 80 minutes.