Boars exit Salver competition

The Boars crashed out of the Salver competition to a team quite capable of winning the competition this year. Brighton fielded a well drilled and capable young team (many were colts only last year) who used their energy and raw pace to good effect.

The Boars pre match tactics were to keep it tight and use the weight and experience of their forwards to best effect (the Boars were on average twice the age and half again as heavy as Brighton and not all the extra weight was muscle). This worked to a certain extent but back fired after 10 minutes when this tactic was tried on the Boars own 22 and the ball was lost and Brighton took the chance to spin it wide and score an unconverted try.

The Boars fought back into their opponents 22 and Burdett called a backs move which caught the Brighton team off guard and Woods cut a great line to score between the posts. Willis used a drop kick to convert and put the Boars ahead.

The second Brighton score was down to a Boars mistake when Willis failed to collect a high clearance kick and the bounce favoured the speedy Brighton backs. From this point the Boars were chasing the game as Brighton realised they could kick to turn their much older opponents and feed off any errors. This led to 2 further tries before half time as the fleet footed youngsters’ eluded tackles or ran round their opposite number to score out wide. This brought up a 26-7 half time and the Boars tried to regroup.

The second half was a closer contest as the Boars eliminated many mistakes and used the wind to gain territory before the forwards tried to dominate their smaller opponents. Brighton score a breakaway try before Jim Cumming finished off at the end of a sustained period of Boars pressure by breaking through the middle of a stretched defensive line and Woods converted. The Boars huffed and puffed but failed to score again despite spells where they battered the Brighton line. Brighton had the final laugh when they again sprinted away to score after winning turnover ball to make the final score 40-12.

Boars Man of the Match was Jack Bayley who matched the Brighton lads for speed and agility but he could not win the game on his own.

Boars Team – B. Togher, C. Jones, C. Watton (R. Burdett – 20), J. Parsons, T. Rose, T. Wates, J. Bayley, J. Cumming, D. Rhodes, B. Burdett (M. MacLeod – 60), D. Hesketh (P. Hookway - 55), A. Farrell, L. Willis (K. Davies – 50), S. Hollingdale, R. Woods

Report by Mike MacLeod

9/22/2007 9:30:03 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)