Taking on last year’s minor premiers and Grand Finalists was a challenge that everyone from last year were looking forward to. The team looked great at training during the week and really gave the coaching staff confidence leading into the game. The team had a distinctly English feel, with 9 players originating from England. Thankfully, they were all happy to embrace a running rugby mentality, rather than their national teams desire to bore the opposition to death!

Unfortunately lock Dave Shaw sustained a back injury before the game and had to pull out during the warm up. Mark Connerton was drafted into the side after playing all of 3rd grade and was looking forward to his first beer of the day.

The first half was an arm wrestle, with the play see sawing along the field, neither team wanting to concede an inch. The defence on both sides was solid, with the occasional missed tackle being quickly covered and the attack shut down. We were able to build phases through good forward running and recycling. Unfortunately the ball handling let us down with a few loose passes at the wrong time. Winger Gareth Lloyd had to be taken off the pitch with what turned out to be a broken jaw. A late penalty goal attempt was unsuccessful, which left the score at 0-0 at half time.

The second half started well, with the team spending plenty of time in the opposition half, only to be denied close to the line on a number of occasions. Another key injury to lock Joe Skeet forced another reshuffle of the pack, which had a big impact on the lineout. Another missed penalty opportunity meant the score remained at 0-0 for 60 minutes, at which time St Pats made a break from their own 22 and eventually scored under the posts at the other end. This opened up the floodgates as St Pats scored another 2 tries to take the win 19-0.

Despite a disappointing final score, the team performed very well and it’s clear that we have a huge amount of talent at our disposal, so we’re confident that we can come away with some great results this year. In terms of individual performances, flanker Tom Pashley was a standout in attack and defence, getting over the gain line consistently and knocking down the big runners. Flanker and Captain Andy Martin led from the front, despite having to fill in at lock for part of the match. Fly-half Luke Fletcher directed the team really well and was rock solid in defence. Scrum half Pat Long also showed his talent by directing the team from the base of the ruck and was also good in counter attack.

Best & Fairest

3 – Tom Pashley #7

2 – Luke Fletcher #10

1 – Andrew Martin #8, Patrick Long #9