Judgement Day at Judds

3 periods of 20 minutes with only 1 replacement available against a strong running Judds side looked like a tall order. The boys looked great in their new kit and were determined to christen it with a win. Thanks go to our benevolent sponsors, the two Richards(Red Street Garage and Harlex) for their eternally deep pockets for our smart new strip.

Gs got on the scoreboard within the 1st 40 seconds, shocking an un-prepared TJs with a deep drop-kicked start, a good ruck and a quick thinking pick up from the base of the ruck by Nathan, who ran it over the TJs line. Tye converted and any pre-match nerves were settled. Under 2 minutes played 0-7. Was this to be a walk in the park? At the restart, Ned collected, made a good run, offloaded to Oli, who passed it to Tye. Tye was tackled into touch on the TJs 30m line. At the TJs lineout, great Gs pressure caused a knock-on and a Gs scrum on TJs 22m. With the Gs piling the pressure on, TJs awoke and came back at us with a vengeance. The next 8 minutes of play saw us camped in our own 10m defending furiously the TJs onslaught. Eventually TJs were rewarded and ran home, but missed the conversion and narrowed the score to 5-7 after 12 minutes. From the restart, things were much more evenly balanced and if anything, TJs superior rucking saw them take an upper hand possessionally. Mayhem made a break into the TJs 22, but was tackled into touch. Gs stole the ball at the lineout and carried toward the goal line, but were thwarted by a resilient TJs defence. TJs eventually yielded to Gs pressure in the last seconds of the 1st period. A Gs scrum 10m out saw the ball find its way to Tye and on to Ben D, who showed great feet, side-stepping 3 TJs backs before scoring in the corner. The conversion attempt was missed from wide left and the 1st period finished with Gs enjoying a lead 5-12.

TJs were clearly not going to go quietly and demonstrated this less than 2 minutes after the restart with a converted Try, levelling the scores at 12-12. Gs responded quickly and edged back ahead in the 3rd minute. Gs restart kicked the ball deep into TJs half. Quickly advancing Gs placed the TJs fullback under sufficient pressure for him to fumble in his own 10m. Connor picked up the loose ball and ran it over the line wide on the left side. The conversion was another tall order and was narrowly missed, but we were back in front at 12-17. TJs responded again, and levelled once more in the 14th minute of the second period, carrying the ball home from a 5m scrum. Ned suffered a back injury defending his line and was to take no further part. With the scores level, 26 minutes still to play, a necessary positional re-shuffle and no replacements, things were looking ominous! TJs remained a constant threat and their better rucking left us with little decent possession. However, our superior tackling allowed us to see the 2nd period out with no further score. 17-17.

Gs edged back ahead immediately after the restart, kicking deep into the TJs 22 and awarded a scrum 10m out, following a TJs knock on. Nathan picked up the ball from the back of the scrum and made a dash for the line, before offloading in the tackle to Tye, who scored, leaving himself a relatively straight forward conversion, which he slotted. 17-24, 2 minutes into the last period. Gs put some daylight between themselves and TJs, scoring the try of the game in the 4th minute. TJs drop kick ended in their own hands and left us threatened. TJs knocked on and Gs had the scrum in their own 22. We won the ball and Tye made a quick break deep into TJs half. With Jo and Oli in close support, he offloaded to Jo B, who made another 20m, before passing to Oli, who scored, making the game relatively safe at 17-29. The conversion attempt from wide was a tough ask and again narrowly missed the uprights. TJs were not out of it yet and struck back in the 11th minute of the final 20, bringing themselves to within a converted Try of us at 22-29. Gs were awarded a penalty 4 minutes later and understandably elected to kick, but shaved the uprights slightly wide. Gs saw out the remaining minutes and finished the game with a narrow but deserved victory 22-29.

Connor was today's Captain and thoroughly deserved his man of the match award.....although needs to brush up on his drinking/chocolate eating forfeits if we want to avoid the need for a post match chunder bucket!

Well done lads!