Start of a New Season

A crisp sunny late summer day greeted the players as they arrived for warm–up but by the time they took to the pitch, the tail end of hurricane Katia decided to change the day. The sky opened and any hopes of a flowing game of slick passing faded as the ball became worse than a bar of greased soap.

The Rams kicked off and, in their traditional style for the first game of the season, started slowly allowing Alton to catch the ball and run it straight back for a try with little opposition put up to block the way. Score 7:0

Redingensians now started to play, and concerted pressure resulted in a series of Alton penalties where they lost ground until a scrum was given near their try line from which David Southworth drove over for the Rams’ first score, Matt Kemp kicked a good conversion. Score 7:7

The Rams tried to play running rugby but the constant showers led to handling errors but during a period of loose play, Stuart Parker picked up and drove through to score under the posts. Matt again converted. Score 7:14

Rams continued to dominate and Alton, being pushed closer to their own try line, gave away another penalty in front of the posts, which Matt Kemp took quickly and dived over to score, converting his own try. Score 7:21.

From the re-start, Redingensians switched off allowing Alton to gain ground and from a scrum and poor defending, Alton ran through poor defence to score. The conversion was good and the end of the half. Score 14:21.

Whilst the rain did not improve the game did as both sides became used to the conditions and it turned into a good contest. The first score of the half went to Alton when, from a scum on the Rams’ 5 metre line, they were able to barrel over for a try. Score 19:21

Following two penalties by Alton, the last being quickly taken, the backs managed eventually to get the ball down the line and, although wasting an overlap, were able to score. Matt again converted. Score 19:28

As the weather conditions wore down the teams, the handling errors grew and the game became increasing messy. One of the handling errors resulted in a dropped ball which Jake Welford picked up and ran though weak defensive tackles to score. Matt missed his first conversion of the day. Score 19:33

The final action of the game was in Alton’s favour when they drove through and with good handling scored out wide, however the conversion was missed giving a final score of Alton 24 and Redingensians Rams 33.

For the first game of the season, the weather conditions made this a tougher test but the boys came through it well with a strong performance.

GWH