A one-sided match

We headed up to Ice Station Abbey on a bright, clear morning for our “local derby” match. Abbey have always made ‘ensians feel welcome so this has always been a fixture we have looked forward to.

After Abbey beat us heavily in the County Trial match in May, the boys wanted to show them that they had learned how to play rugby on a full pitch and from the off it was evident that we were the stronger side. Our forwards played some of the best rugby, winning ball and making sure it went to the backs. There was nothing to criticize about their rucking or mauling where we invariably won the ball. Our Scrum was, perhaps, a little more even but when Abbey did win their own ball we stole it back quickly afterwards. Ben Spackman, Callum, Benji, Ben Green and Andrew ran in 11 tries between them with Matt and Max splitting the 8 conversions evenly.

Abbey were able to get a consolation try which was scored in a superb run by their newest player who ran three quarters of the pitch untouched! After that he was a marked man. On his next break away, Dylan put in what everyone thought was the tackle of the day to bring him down. Dylan’s honour lasted until the last seconds of the match when, again, the Abbey boy ran the length of the pitch only to be caught by Robbie with a simply amazing tackle just one metre from the line. It was an excellent run by both and great finish to a slightly one-sided match where the final score was 71-5.