Sarries2009 2ndXV Match Report

Seniors 2nd XV - Match Report (Merit Table Fixture)
(31/10/09) Honiton 2nd XV - Home (Won 32-14)

A good all rounded performance by the 2nd team especially with a bare 15.

Sarries started much stronger this week and kept this up through out nearly all of the game. After some hard running by the forwards the ball was released wide, and after some well timed passes by all of the backs this left Tom Wilmington to use his pace and beat his winger to score. Tom then missed one of many conversions!
Shortly after this try, the hard working second row Andy Ashton went over on his ankle and had to leave the game! With no subs on the bench this meant sarries had to carry on with 14 men for the next 25 minutes. The Honiton side made use of the extra man, and nearly went over the line 2 or 3 times. The brilliant defence of Henry Wilkins stopped them once and with Honiton having no one in support he managed to turn the ball over, which was kicked to touch, it must be noted that Wilkins was so strong in defence that nothing came through his channel, he was certainly tackling like a machine!
Again Honiton made use of the extra man and nearly crept in, but the hard working 3 quarters worked brilliantly together to stop Honiton in our own 22, with Paul Webber, Dan Chalmers and Joe Pearce wrapping the ball up and saving another possible try. After getting out of our 22 and some hard work by all of the forwards, the ball was expertly passed from Aaron Brereton to the No 8 Ben Cowley, who forced his way through the Honiton defensive forwards to go over the line for the 2nd try.
After hearing that Andy Ashton had got injured Mark Baker Ran home to get his kit, although Mark has only been playing rugby for almost a year, he got stuck in, and done an awesome job! He was spoiling their lineout, taking crash balls, and securing ruck ball, everything you would expect from an experienced second row player!
Two more tries were scored in the first half to give Sarries a comfortable 27-0 lead.

The second half was a lot more physical with Honiton seemingly having a second wind, and it paid off with there hard working forwards going over the line twice! The rest of the game was played in the Honiton half, but like last week, the structure seemed to go out the window a bit and the ball kept finding its way out wide straight away, rather than playing it the forwards for a couple of phases.
In the last play of the game Sarries had a scrum inside the Honiton 22, with great scrummaging all game especially from Nick Shires who won a lot of ball against the head (obviously all the scrums from last week had paid off) the backs had planned a brilliant move which saw Paul Webber come off his wing and take an inside ball to go in untouched! This attempt at a conversion was taken in the form of a drop kick from Aaron Brereton who missed right in front of the posts!!!!!

All in all a hard and physical game, but everyone put the effort in to secure another win for the second team. Again a selection nightmare will ensue on Tuesday with so much ability and drive from every player in the 2nd team!

Ben Cowley (2nd Team Captain)