 30 Nov 2009, 2:15 PM
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Scoop
Joined on 10-06-2008
Posts 33
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Shoreham 12 St Francis 18 on 28/11/09
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Report written by Adie
Sussex Intermediate League
Shoreham 12 St Francis 18
A wet Buckingham Park was the venue for a tough rugby battle laced with a number of big hits and mazy runs. St Francis started stronger, and from the first scrum showed their intent to put Shoreham on the back foot behind a retreating scrum. However, Frannies were unable to trouble the scorers through errors in the lineout, and giving away penalties in poor positions of the field. From one of these penalties the Shoreham fly-half put Saints on the back foot in their own 22 metre area. With the quick ball from the lineout Shoreham put their backs into action and, with their hard running backs exploiting gaps within the St Francis defence, they were able to touch down for the first try of the game.
St Francis looked to control the game from here, and try to dampen the effect of Shoreham's hard running centre and ellusive full back. From the kick off Frannies started to put in the big hits, especially a number from Millard and Miles. This raised Frannies morale and St Francis spent most of the remainder of the first half in the Shoreham twenty-two. After a few bursting runs from the St Francis forwards, notably a couple from Trevaskis, St Francis were camped on the Shoreham try line, putting lots of pressure on the Shoreham defence. Shoreham soaked up some of the pressure but could not stop Perry touching down on the blind side after taking a crash ball from a ruck. Mbanjwa narrowly missed the conversion from the touch line to leave the scores level at 5-5. The game ebbed and flowed for the remainder of the half, only really stopping after some bone crunching tackles, with both teams happy to be level pegging at half time.
St Francis started the second half stronger, looking to use the slope and their scrum to their advantage to release their backs into some space. With this additional space, Murray Stephenson now playing in the centres looked to exploit gaps in the Shoreham defence, bringing in the speedy McShane on the outside. It was this combination that brought St Francis into the lead, John McShane expertly touching down before being bundled into touch. St Francis were unable to add the extras but it was not long before Stephenson bundled his way over the line for a try to put a bit of daylight between the teams.
Shoreham had other ideas, however, and from the kick off rucked and mauled their way into Frannies twenty-two metre area. St Francis put up a valiant effort but, after conceding penalty after penalty, the inevitable try came to bring Shoreham back to within three points. St Francis had chances to put the game to bed, most notably Perry squandering a chance by knocking on with the try line at his mercy, but up until the final whistle the game could have gone either way. Even after Mbanjwa slotted a penalty with thirty seconds remaining there was an opportunity for Shoreham to snatch the game from Frannies grasp. St Francis, however, collected the restart to ruck their way to the end of the game 18-12 victors.
Team - McGahan, Perry, Trevaskis, Keshavarz, Porter, Stephenson, Millard, Miles, Mbanjwa, McArdle, Aydin, Smith, Blake, Poole, McShane, Singh.
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