Match Report - Tom Morton

Marlborough got off to a great start by winning possession from their own kick off. Perhaps this aggression was down to Wellington having just watched beating the La Tablada U17 side! Both sides shared possession playing some good passages of rugby but handing the ball over too easily. Eventually we payed for this as the Argentinian pack stole the ball in their own 22 and their backs used suoerb pace and hands to score. Heads momentarily went down but by the time the conversion had been taken a new aggression was found. Marlborough struck back on the stroke of the first third. The slightly lanky Tom Durrant-Pritchard charged to the try line with great pace but was lifted and stopped on the line. No worries! Seconds later the rather less lanky Ed Atkin sold a wonderful dummy and sneaked over the line to level the scores.

The home side controlled the beginning of the second third by scoring two more tries, mostly due to some weak tackling and some weak support play after the tackle. Marlborough didn't lose heart and are soon only two points behind. Great teamwork and a stunning reverse flip pass out of a tackle by the skipper, Harry Vickers, put Tom Morton over in the corner barely 60 seconds after taking the field (talk about an impact player! - Ed.). The next try came after some powerful runs in attack, especially from the forwards, followed by a turnover and a missed tackle which had Marlborough backtracking fast. Just then we got a lucky break when the opposition centre attempted to chip the ball past Ed Kilbee but succeeded only in dinking it neatly into his hands. A slightly surprised looking Ed used his pace to run the 40 yards necessary to socre and then converted his own try to take us into the last period just 19 - 21 down.

As expected the home side continued to play quick, aggressive rugby in the third period and quickly exploit a couple more missed tackles to score their fourth try and lead 28 - 19. Marlborough continue their own aggressive play but although the heart is there the technique isn't a limbs get tired. In the last minutes of the game, the backs lost their shape both in attack and defence and the forwards were unable to stop a couple of turnovers. Sensing weakness the Argentinians upped the aggression level leaving Alex Lavarello with a bloody nose and a headache. A try in the dying seconds for the home side leaves the score looking rather unbalanced at 19 - 33.

Marlborough left the field full of disappointment and feeling they should have done much better. The team feeling was that we had had patches of good play and, although the heart was always there, the technique sometimes let us down. Some hard sessions of tackling and ball retention lie ahead of us...

The editor would like to point out that the team have come on leaps and bounds with each game and that although some tackles were missed and four turnovers led directly to tries conceded the standard of rugby in this match was very high from both teams - certainly much higher than in the curtain-raiser we had just witnessed...