Match Report - Charlie Mercer

Having faced the dustbowl of Salta, at San Cirano we were faced with a pitch weathered by heavy overnight rain.

There was so much surface water that many feared that it would be too deep for scrum half Ed Atkin, awarded the honour of "Player of the Tour" at the tour dinner the evening before. However, although two hours at morning training was cancelled, the match went ahead as planned.

Coming in as a late substitute fot the Belgrano Athletic Club, San Cirano proved to an extremely physical set of players. Although it was clear from the start that their backs were nothing special, the size, strength and doggedness of the forwards made for a tough pack which we found hard to cope with, especially for the first twenty minutes. Due to the poor conditions, although we had superiority out wide, the game was always going to be won and lost - indeed played - up front.

San Sirano began well, being in control for most of the first half. It was in this period that they scored their first try - a simple run in after a break in midfield. Marlborough managed only a solitary penalty to leave the score at 3 - 5 at half-time.

It was in the second half, though, that the excitement really came. The first quarter of an hour saw Marlborough constantly press the Argentinian defence with john Hawkins coming closest to scoring after being held just short following a close range number eight pick up. Hearts were in mouths after Ed Colclough's dynamic charge down (his own words!) found the pill hovering five meters out from the try line. However, although the line-out worked very well indeed with many balls being won against the head, the problem of keeping possession hampered us as it had earlier in the tour. Too many times we found ourselves in a good position only to lose the ball out of contact or have it plucked at the tackle by an alert Argentinian.

Besides our faults, though, the opposition performed well. The pack's ability to graft in tough conditions was underpinned by an international prop and a provincial hooker so, even though we perhaps could have hoped for a better result, the company in which we were playing were not mugs by any strecth of the imagination.