After a fantastic 17-12 victory on the road Vs Boys Club of Wales at Porthcawl RFC, the National Lambs were back in action this Saturday (18th February) at Hornets RFC facing another Welsh opponent the Crawshay’s Welsh XV.
In the opening exchanges, the Crawshays’ dominant forwards carriers consistently gave the Welsh side front football, which set free their backs who stretched the Lambs’ defence.
Outstanding Lambs defence, from Captain Oliver Musk (Denstone College) and Hamish Irvine (Felsted) keeping the Lambs in the opening exchanges. The issues the Crawshays’ attack was causing the Lambs’ defence forced the Lambs to infringe at the breakdown. This resulted in Crawshays having a penalty 5 meters away from the try line. A well-worked move saw Crawshays picking out their significant ball carrier tight head who crashed over for the game’s first try. Lambs 0-5 Crawshays.
This sprung the Lambs into life, in a move Lambs’ electric winger Max Pattison (Sir Thomas, Rich’s) made a break down the blindside who fed Harrison Milner (The King’s School, Macclesfield) who offloaded to Josh Pastcole-Reynolds (St John’s, Leatherhead) breaking away. However unbelievable defence prevented Pastcole-Reynolds from scoring seeing him being pulled down meters before the line and the ball being spilt forward.
From the resulting scrum, Crawshays worked their way up the pitch. A well-worked backs move and flowing rugby saw them crossing the whitewash for their second of the game. Lambs 0-12 Crawshays.
Unfortunately for Lambs, with their tails up Crawshays were able to back this score up with another on the stroke of halftime, giving them a 17-point lead heading into the break.
At the beginning of the second half, it was clear the Lambs wanted to rectify the wrongs from the first half, with Fraser Lyne (Seaford College) and Micheal Guppy (St Peter’s School York) carrying with real intent into the Crawshays defence.
The Lambs kept knocking on the door with Hooker Louie Mayall (Ipswich School) chipping and chasing to good effect, demonstrating the style of play is fast and free. With 25 minutes played the Lambs could not break down a well organised defence.
Once again from a strong Lambs position, Crawshays broke away to score. Lambs 0-22 Crawshays. The Lambs had given everything but could not find a way through. In the final play of the game, Crawshays rounded up a good performance with another score in the last play. Ultimately, a dominant performance from the Crawshays pack proved too strong on the day.
Full Time: Lambs 0-29 Crawshay’s Welsh XV
Player of the Match: Michael Guppy, (St Peter’s School York)
National manager James Vecchio commented: “I think the boys will learn a lot from this fixture. Coming off the highs of last week we must work hard to problem solve when faced with a strong defensive team as we have today. But you could see in parts of the game it started to click, perhaps if we scored the first try it could of change the narrative of the game somewhat.”
“I would like to congratulate Crawshays on a fantastic clinical performance. As a Squad, we now look forward to another test at Brunel University next Friday evening with another tough test Vs Ealing.”
“The Lambs would like to thank Hornets RFC for hosting. Also thanks to the Crawshays for a fantastic game and wish them luck for the rest of the season.”
