Match Report - Oli Bishop
Despite
some prematch shenanigans involving a plot to stop star
man Charlkie Mercer gaining his first start for the XV
the match
got under way with a large crowd in attendance.
Straight
from the kick off the Salta team launched into a rolling
maul that would prove to be a benchmark for the rest
of the game. With some pretty hefty forwards it was clear
that the
battle would be fought up front in a war of attrition.
We started well, putting huge amounts of pressure on
them
in
their own 22, forcing them to touch the ball down over
their own line twice in the firsty five minutes. With
this sustained
pressure we came away from the 22 with three points
and an ewarly lead. The home side were strong in defence
and were
quickly up on our back line which restricted us from
playing the flowing expansive rugby which we would have
liked to
play on such a huge pitch. We struggled to string more
than two or three phases together before the ball was
killed. the impetud gradually shifted more and more towards
Salta
and they had twenty minutes of susatined pressure to
end the first half. Just as in our firat game we gave
away
a
soft try to end the first period 3 - 7 down.
The start
of the second half was hugely disappointing as we
gave away
two tries in five minutes and found ourselves 3 -
19 down.
We refused to give up, though, and we began to build
our phases and play some decent rugby. The forwards
struggled against a very strong scrummaging unit but they
worked
seriously hard and did extremely well, disrupting
ball in opposition
rucks and line-outs, which were hugely improved from
the
first game. The hard work was rewarded with a good
team try, appropriately scored by our skipper who was
later awarded
a prize for being the most sportsmanlike player (aka
the biggest whoopsie). A conversion by Ed Kilbee brought
the
score to 10 - 19. A missed penalty, which would have
brought us within a score, followed and the effort
did not falter
until the final whistle.
We can all be proud of a
much improved performance. Hopefully we can build on this
game as we travel to Tucuman. |
