Boars 60 vs. East Grinstead 3’s 5

The Boars seem to love playing against East Grinstead. The rugby is usually good, clean and hard fought and the Boars have formed a habit of winning well. In this game the Boars seemed to have the edge in all areas bar the scrum and took their chances clinically while denying East Grinstead many opportunities.

The Boars won the toss and elected to play up the slope hoping to enjoy the benefits in the second half. This seemed to work well as Cook blasted over for a try within 10 minutes to be followed 5 minutes later by a Woods trademark elegant line through a fragmenting defence.

So far so good but the Boars took the foot of the accelerator and began to coast only to be woken up by a East Grinstead score as their big forwards rumbled over.

The Boars fought back and gained the East Grinstead 22 metre line where they were awarded a penalty. Surprisingly the Boars had practiced a set piece before the game and it paid off handsomely when Jim Cumming finished off a move he started 4 phases before. This left time for the best bit of rugby of the half when Lewis stole lineout ball on the Boars 5 metre line, the backs swept it out right where Hollingdale blasted 40 metres up the hill, it was recycled twice and came to Rhodes who put in a lovely delicate chip kick to the left where Woods was waiting to collect and score (just like they do in internationals). This took the tally to a comfortable 24-5 to the Boars at half time.

The Boars took advantage of the slope to make the game rather one sided in the second half as they ran in 6 tries and converted three of them. There was a Cook classic pick up and drive from the base of a scrum, a sublime finish by Farrell, two weaving runs for Bayley, a familiar bullocking blast from ‘Twinkletoes’ Hollingdale and a 40 metre sprint by Jaques to bring up a final score of 60-5. Much credit must go to East Grinstead team spirit for the way they stayed in the game and kept plugging away against a strong Boars team.

Man of the Match was Jim Cumming for being everywhere at the right time but he was pushed hard by the ‘Bionic Boy’ Dave Rhodes who is enjoying his 5th decade of rugby thanks to a good surgeon and an understanding wife.

Boars Team – M. MacLeod (B. Togher – 55), C. Jones, J. Geesin (J. Bayley – 40), J. Parsons, T. Rose (S. Walker – 60), J. Cumming, K. Lewis (R. Streeter – 40), D. Cook, D. Rhodes, B. Burdett, Julian Wates, A. Farrell (D. Hesketh – 50), M. Barber (M. Jaques – 60), S. Hollingdale, R. Woods

9/19/2007 9:22:44 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)