Round 2 vs Wakehurst

After a solid turnout for our round 1 victory over St Ives, expectations were high for a repeat performance in round 2.

We were on the road in week 2, a Friday night trip to Wakehurst Rugby Park saw all and sundry warned of the perils of Friday night traffic. And it must have done the trick as we were all there with plenty of time to spare. (I do hope that this doesn’t lead to any overconfidence for this Friday’s trip to Newport).

Anyway back to the game –

Our first trip to Wakehurst found that the pitch was a bit less than the pristine fields of Boronia No. 1, but both sides had to contend with it, so it was game on. Wakehurst were going to be an unknown quantity with only 1 side, so we expected some A class opponents amongst them.

Patrick Stevens lead the team for the second week in a row and was looking to keep his (and ours) unbeaten record intact. But from the first whistle we were under pressure as we failed to take the kickoff cleanly and spent the first 4-5 minutes defending in our own 22. The pressure soon became too much to bear as Wakehurst crossed in the corner and we were behind 5-0 as they failed to convert from the corner.

I admit at this stage I was a bit nervous. But to the boys credit this was the spark that kicked our game into gear. Our cleanout at the breakdown improved and our scrum was magnificent as we dominated the ruck. It took a while but finally we worked out that we should send the ball wide instead of cutting back in to the traffic. Some fantastic runs from Harry and Andrew on our wings saw Harry cross out wide, and he should have had another but had the ball knocked loose over the line. Max also crossed out wide and we were up 10-0 at half time, as we had narrowly failed to convert both tries.

The second half was ours as we began to dominate the game like we did in the second half. Man of the match Andrew scored a double as we continued to cause major damage at the ruck and maul whilst our speed men out wide had a filed day. Joey Skelly and Layton Holley were our two subs from the A’s and they both provided a good example for our boys and we learnt a lot from them as they showed the way forward. The referee made a point of mentioning how good we were at the clean out, which is especially pleasing as this is an area we have worked on.

Points for the game went to Andrew (3), Harry (2) and Alex (1), but really it was a good team effort with everyone playing their role. I’d like to mention three boys whom I thought were unlucky not to earn points this week in Jake, Tom and Sam whom all had huge games.

Wakehurst showed they can compete as they out enthused us early. The rematch should be a cracker.

So now we are 2 from 2 and are back on the road this Friday to Newport. Please note we have a 6.30pm start, but we may need it as Newport is a long way away in Friday night traffic.

Final Score – Hunters Hill White 20 (tries - A.Camilleri 2, H. Kemp, M.McKay 1, Conversions – E.Gregory 0/2, H.Kemp 0/2) bt Wakehurst 5 (1 try)

Training is on Thursday as per normal

Coach Ben