1st XV v Grace Dieu Won 27-12

On a cold and windy afternoon the 1st XV took on a very sizeable and uncompromising Grace Dieu XV. Playing into the wind was always going to be a challenge but we certainly made it hard for ourselves as we performed at well below our best for the majority of the first half. We lost out at the every break down and found ourselves overpowered by a formidable Grace Dieu pack and some sizeable centres who were well directed by the opposition fly half. A try from EH gave us a little breathing space but a number of unforced errors saw us surrender our lead almost immediately and the scores were level at 5 a piece at half time.

Harsh words at the break seemed to do the trick as we started in a much more determined fashion; hitting the breakdown with more purpose and we managed to force Grace Dieu onto the back foot. Some well directed play (both running and kicking) from fly half JW opened spaces for RH, EH (again) and JW himself to cross the whitewash and slowly we begamn to over power the opposition. The finest try of the match saw the entire team involved in a move that was started in our own 22 and finished in the opposite corner with JC diving over the line.
A rather adventurous backs move that went awry under our own posts gifted the visitors a score with the last play of the game but the score line of 27 -12 was a fair reflection of the dominance that we managed to achieve.

Opponents       Result        Score            Tries       Conversions

Grace Dieu          Won        27 - 12            EH 2              ON
                                                               JC
                                                               JW
                                                               RH

RJM19.11.08