1XV Match vs Nayland College 1XV

Our first venture into the South island began with a tight match against a well organised Nayland College.

It was an outstandingly slow yet energy sapping start to the game as there were no scores and hardly any breaks in the game due to a chilled out style of reffing. Until there was a break through by our life size Jonah, Lawrence Okoye. He recieved the ball 10 metres out and saw a scrawy winger shaking in his boots and therefore he decided to trundle over the top of him and embaress him in front of his entire school. Nayland however responded strongly and applied a lot of pressure onto our covery defense but we stuck at it and Marland Yarde found a gaping hole which had to be punished and he did so accordingly with a great solo effort. This try was then suitably finished with a conversion from Rob White. The game progressed and Nayland managed to snatch back two tries to make the score 12-12 before Lawrence crashed over for another two tries rounding up a nice hat-trick. We went into half time with a satisfactory lead yet feeling slightly deflated at the way we played.

The second half began with Nayland crashing through our mediocre defense to keep themselves in the game. Then the pressure was applied on us and although the defense at times struggled, we managed to created a faultless move off a scrum to end up in a 60m try for stand in centre Marland Yarde. Our defense and attack started to regather and look as if we were dominating. The move starting with a phenomenal run from Harry Williams splitting open the close ruck defense and offloading well and the ruck being set up. This passage of play then continued for a moment or so until Rob white managed to pick out their fastest winger with an interception allowing him a free run under the posts and an easy conversion. Eventually we regained some dominance and Jack Valler blasted over from the back of a well executed driving maul. However some sloppy defending left Nayland with a last minute attempt to snatch the game as their winger sliced through and scored in the corner. All down to the conversion, the ball went up and looked as though it was going over until it hit the post and bounced off to leave us with a 32-31 victory.

A special mention must be given to Harry Williams for his great efforts in the scrums and in open play taking many balls off the breakdown. Also the waterboy Charlie Hopkins did a sterling job and the team were never left asking for a drink.

Charlie Hopkins