Old Yards were up against a younger and lesser experienced Old Edwardians who were playing their first match and it was decided that the match should be played 20 mins each half. It was clearly going to be a difficult first match for the home side as Old Yards were bigger in the scrum. The home side were a man short and Alex offered to play the first half for Old Eds.
Old Yards were soon into their stride and after winning a scrum Andrew cut through the defence to score after 3 mins with Dan converting. It was not long before Old Yards scored again as the home side tried to run the ball out of defence and Christian put in a good tackle before the ball was fed to Stuart who scored his first try to put Old Yards 12-0 up. After 9 mins Old Yards scored again as Andrew ran through before passing out to Stuart who scored his second try with Matt J. converting.
Although the match was turning out to be quite easy for Old Yards it was good to see that players were trying to build play and run the ball. Old Yards extended their lead after 17 mins to 26-0 as Tom S. collected the ball from Christian's pass to score despite Alex's diving tackle and Matt J. converted. Right on half time George B. took the ball from a short penalty and used his power to score his first of the game. Matt J. converted again to bring a close to the half.
Half Time - Old Edwardians 0 Old Yardleians 33
Old Yards made changes at half time with Andrew, Michael, Sam and Tom being replaced by George D., Tom C., Shannon and Alex who swopped sides, with Austin helping out the home side. It was not long before Old Yards scored again when George B. made one of his powerful runs from his own half to score and Shaun converted well. Two minutes later Old Yards scored again after good passing down the line saw Stuart score his second try of the match and Shaun converted again to extend the lead to 47-0.
The home side were starting to tire and lose a little bit of confidence as Christian scored a fine try for his first for the club as after the ball was passed down the line he cut back inside, with Dan converting. Old Eds picked their game up and held out until 5 mins from the end when George B. scored his third try of the match as he picked up from the back of the scrum to run in. Dan scored the conversion to take the score to 61-0.
There were no further scores in the match and Old Yards ran out convincing winners for their biggest win ever. Although they were playing against weaker opposition it was good to see that Old Yards played the match in the right spirit and will no doubt still have learned a great deal from the game.
Full Time Old Edwardians 0 Old Yardleians 61
Team: James Lawler, Scott Wilson, Dan Green, Sam Wright, Matt Willetts, Christian Wilson, Michael Thompson, George Bishop, Sheldon Du Plessis, Matt Jesse, Andrew Cox, Shaun Morris, Stuart Adams, Tony Walker, Tom Scott.
Replacements: George Drabble, Tom Carter, Shannon Killarney, Alex Patrick, Austin Hughes.
Scorers: Tries - George B. (3), Stuart (2), Andrew, Dan, Tom S. Christian. Conversions - Dan (3), Matt J. (3), Shaun (2)