1st XV v Trent College Lost 33-0

This was always going to be a challenging match with Trent famous for the size and athleticism of its players and their 1st XV was of no disappointment with some real heavy weight opponents. The match was refereed superbly throughout by Mark Cox from Malvern.
S. Anselm’s kicked off and played mightily from the beginning, with grinding tackles being hammered into their opponents. Sadly the forwards were quickly outgunned and were edged off the ball on at breakdowns, leaving the backs to pull off some impressive defensive work. We fought hard and maintained the status quo for the first ten minutes before a missed challenge allowed a substantial break to be placed beneath the posts.
S. Anselm’s kept their heads high and took the gauntlet, with Rufus L making a string of four breath taking tackles. Sadly support was often slow in arriving, or was not substantial enough, meaning the opposition easily retained the ball or turned over our possession.
The game was extremely physical and S. Anselm’s did well to hold themselves together in the face of adversity. The scrum was constantly being driven back with our forwards regularly decimated and our own put ins were then under too much pressure to be used constructively.
David C had a great debut at full back and made some excellent defensive catches and runs. Will A kicked brilliantly throughout the game and Monty C managed a nice punt, which nearly worked!
Unfortunately resolve began to crumble in the second half and a torrent of points began to pour past us, although Anselm’s did try to explore some new strategies of attack which was nice to see. Dominic A enjoyed his first outing as a member of the 1st XV and tackled commendably.
Man of the match was definitely Rufus L who accumulated a massive tackle count and regularly stole the ball from the opposition, personally received the referees own commendation for his efforts throughout the game.