Team news, up front Tim Blades in at loosehead, Gez in for a rare runabout (available until first physio requirements start), Sam Miller came in at number 8, Matty Baggs swaps to 10 from 9 and Danny Quinn eventually returns from the longest summer holiday for a nonteacher on record! With the weather much improved from last week West forwards where hopeful of less scrummaging and more open play.
West based their game on a strong defence and dominant scrummage all day and this combination produced our first score. Strong tackling throughout the opening encounters let to handling errors from Old Boys resulting in a scrum 5 metres out. Sam Miller picking and going from base to trundle over from 5 metres, 5-0. Strong running for Jordan Baggs and offload to Alex J, the ball quickly recycled allowing Jordan Painter to run in for second try, 10-0. A series of excellent recycling and phase plays stretched the Old Boys defence. A simple miss move in the backs saw Sam Miller pop up out wide and run in for his second, Zac with extras 17-0.
Old Boys then had possession for the next 15 minutes or so of the first half. Big runners gamely running at the West defence. West changed Gez(first team strapping to sort) for Craig who pulled up lame immediately so changed him for Callum Though Old Boys didn’t manage to cross the line West defensive efforts began to frustrate the ref. Persistent offences let to Charlie and then Sam enjoying a slightly longer half-time break than was planned!
HT 17-0
Old Boys continued where they left off and continued to apply pressure against West’s 13 men. Good play from the Old Boys 10 sees them take advantage of numerical advantage, 17-7.
With West restored to a full complement they again began to put pressure on the Old Boys. Sam Miller again having a great eye for the space used his walking rugby skills to dummy a couple of would-be defenders and score in the corner for his hat-trick, 22-7. From the restart the kick didn’t go the required 10 metres, giving us an ideal attacking scrum. Classic county ball saw Dom hit an excellent attacking line, followed by some great interplay between forwards and backs. Quick ball again and Alex J benefits from a full 2 metres this week (doubling last weeks effort), extras added 29-7. West now in full flow, more good recycling and hard running lines resulted in space out wide which Zac was able to explode and convert his own try, 36-7.
Regular Stag watchers thought they’d seen their try of the season last week when Toddy’s dazzling run finished off some great rugby. This week the Stags ran in a full lengther, again excellent support and offloading saw West progress up field. Quinny the ultimate beneficiary for what be try of the season after only 3 weeks!! Extras added 43-7.
Solid performance and excellent result for West Stags. Encouragement that when making changes performance again didn’t drop and players pushing for places in the first team producing some stand out performance. Next up another derby as Rover’s travel across town (back to 3pm ko).
FT 43 –7
Cox, Painter, Todd, Southern, Mould, Baggs, Quinn, Blades T, Johnson,Geritz, Webb, Wray, Kay, Baggs, Miller. Sub (all used) Treager, Liston (Spud), Larkin, Godfrey, McClurg, Hadwen
MOTM:Sam Miller – Difficult decision with plenty of good performance but a hat-trick pips other contenders, “all he does is score tries” (those who know, know)!
Bait – Pie, Peas (mushy), Chips and Gravy (Northern lads love gravy) 9.5/10
Jasper along with Mixie- Missing In Action