1st XV kick off Papa Johns Cup campaign in style
Cliffs Crusaders 5 vs 41 Verulamians
After a gut wrenching loss to Watford in the Herts Trophy final Vee’s looked to wipe the slate clean heading into their Papa Johns cup campaign in what was essentially a free hit against our Kent opponents Cliffe Crusaders.
With a coach organised by our resident hooker Hamish, the boys travelled down in style and in fact arrived early! After paying a visit to the local off license and scouting out where the nearest pub was the team switched their focus to the game at hand.
The pitch was flat and wide which when comparing ourselves against our opponents in the warm up who appeared to be more suited to the set piece, it looked like an opportunity for Vee’s to utilise their ability to spread the ball wide.
The match kicked off with a Vee’s travelling party and what appeared to be half of Cliffe village down cheering each team on. Vee’s gained posssesion off of a clearance and looked to stamp their impression immediately. With a strong return from Gareth, Vee’s then spread it wide through centres Jimmy and Travis for winger Dan Williams to dive over in the right hand corner barely 2 minutes into the game!
A period of push and shove then ensued as Cliffe looked to respond through strong carries from their big ball carriers. With a Vee’s line out in our 22 Cliffe looked to apply pressure and did so by stealing the line out! However, prop Oakley RS proceeded to rip the ball from their winger probing down the touch line and streaked away with a hop, skip and a dummy much to the delight of the Vee’s fans. Keenly backed up by flanker Owen and Tom Shenton Vee’s managed to dot down under the posts in what was the best of many well worked tries on the day.
Vee’s off to back of this looked energised and wanted to create some breathing room through the reliable boot of Gareth Waters who calmly slotted a penalty minutes later to make it 15-0. That wasn’t the end of the points though as soon after Andre crashed through Cliffe’s defensive line off the back of a line out and confidently beat the last man to score under the posts!
With an attacking platform in Cliffe’s half once again, a smoothly executed Omaha call through James Ryan led to him setting up 1st XV debutant Rory Shenton who side stepped the fullback and streaked away to score his first try of the day. Not satisfied with only 1 score and being level with his brother Tom on the day, Rory then proceeded to finish off a great set of play as the ball went through most of the teams hands as Vee’s ran the length of the field to score just before half time to make it 34-0. Despite the comfortable positioning of the conversion Gareth attempted a drop goal conversion which as expected didn’t come off, thankfully Vee’s had earned a healthy lead before this.
At half time Vee’s looked to re-group and continue their momentum over the shell shocked home team. Yet with a change in the weather and a resurgent Cliffe outfit that was not to be. A few low driving kicks from Cliffe’s fly half allowed them to have a taste of some territory early in the second half.
But Vee’s defence held strong through some great work from the abrasive Andre and hard working Dan Monaghan. After some phase play around halfway a well worked roundabout call led to scrum half Tom Shenton slicing through who calmly executed a 2 v 1 for Captain on the day Joe Breeze to go over for a score to make it 41-0.
However, as the forecast predicted a spell of wet weather graced the pitch. This played into Cliffe’s hands who were starting to assert themselves in the scrum through their heavier pack. Off the back of a great 50/22 executed by the Cliffe Fly Half they now had a platform 5 metres out to get over for a score. After a set of tight phase play and staunch defence from Vee’s the home team managed to burrow over much to the delight of the home crowd.
The game was wrapped up shortly after this score with the game finishing 41-5 to the Mighty Vee’s who can be very proud of this performance with all players who donned the shirt putting in a stellar performance!
Our attention now turns to our home fixture against Haslemere in the quarter finals of this campaign. With the opposition once again being an unknown the lads are making no assumptions and look to give the home crowd a proud showing of what all the hard work up to this point in the season has led to! Make sure to get down and show your support!
Up The Vee’s
