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Sat 14 Nov 2015 ·  Division 5
Witham I
2nd XV
3
24
Witham 3 Epping 2s 24
Steven Douglass15 Nov 2015 - 07:55
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Clapton secure hard earned victory
Clapton arrived at Witham on Saturday for their 5th merit table match of the season to be greeted by the wind and ain. This my friends was not a match for the faint hearted.
The visitors had made several changes from the previous week with call ups and unavailabilities altering the side somewhat.
Kurtis Knightly was Captain for the day who promptly lost the toss and Clapton were made to play up the slope in the first half.
The early exchanges favoured the visitors but in trying conditions were unable to capitalise on this advantage with balls being spilled at the crucial time.
As the half progressed Witham took a strangle hold and pinned the club in their own half for long periods of time. Fortunately the defense held firm led by some dogged hits by Adam Power (he promised me a beer if I wrote that). . It was afrer one scermish that the visitors were to lose the corner stone of their scrum, veteren prop Andy Carroll suffering a hurty knee.
With no other front row available the scrums went uncontested for the rest of the match.
Witham had a couple of shots at goal but were unable to convert to leave the half time score goalless.
With the advantage of the slope Claptons plan was to kick the ball into the corner and only play rugby in the Witham half
A plan that was unfortunately completely ignored as the second half began with the club moving the ball wide for Shadai Smith to make a penetrating run into the oppositions 22. As with the first half handling errors proved costly as Epping spurned further scoring opportunitues.
It was the homeside that finally broke the deadlock with a penalty in front of the posts. This score seemed to galvanise the away team and moments later had crossed the line for the first try of the afternoon, Liam Rogers powering his way over from close range. Further tries soon followed with Scott Stalley and Rhys Brown both touching down. As time ran out the final say was to go to the Claptain Captain who showed an outstanding turn of pace by out stripping all woukd be tacklers and scoring with the final play of the game. Kurtis converted as well as one other to leave the final score at 24-3
A special mention must go to nan of the match Tom Procell who excelled in the dark areas and made those hard yards in attack
Next week the 2s are back at the OLD club for another merit table match against Thurrock
The visitors had made several changes from the previous week with call ups and unavailabilities altering the side somewhat.
Kurtis Knightly was Captain for the day who promptly lost the toss and Clapton were made to play up the slope in the first half.
The early exchanges favoured the visitors but in trying conditions were unable to capitalise on this advantage with balls being spilled at the crucial time.
As the half progressed Witham took a strangle hold and pinned the club in their own half for long periods of time. Fortunately the defense held firm led by some dogged hits by Adam Power (he promised me a beer if I wrote that). . It was afrer one scermish that the visitors were to lose the corner stone of their scrum, veteren prop Andy Carroll suffering a hurty knee.
With no other front row available the scrums went uncontested for the rest of the match.
Witham had a couple of shots at goal but were unable to convert to leave the half time score goalless.
With the advantage of the slope Claptons plan was to kick the ball into the corner and only play rugby in the Witham half
A plan that was unfortunately completely ignored as the second half began with the club moving the ball wide for Shadai Smith to make a penetrating run into the oppositions 22. As with the first half handling errors proved costly as Epping spurned further scoring opportunitues.
It was the homeside that finally broke the deadlock with a penalty in front of the posts. This score seemed to galvanise the away team and moments later had crossed the line for the first try of the afternoon, Liam Rogers powering his way over from close range. Further tries soon followed with Scott Stalley and Rhys Brown both touching down. As time ran out the final say was to go to the Claptain Captain who showed an outstanding turn of pace by out stripping all woukd be tacklers and scoring with the final play of the game. Kurtis converted as well as one other to leave the final score at 24-3
A special mention must go to nan of the match Tom Procell who excelled in the dark areas and made those hard yards in attack
Next week the 2s are back at the OLD club for another merit table match against Thurrock
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