Fullerians ESB's 13 - 31 Watford 2nd XV - 22/10/05 |
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Another young Watford side turned up to the much anticipated local
derby at Fullerians which aside from Mullins, Cox and the elder Reilly
must have had an average age of about 19 or 20. Whatever they may have
lacked in experience the backs in particular were brimful of pace which
would have to be well utilised if the away side were to emerge
victorious.
Watford kicked off proceedings and the tone of the game was set when
their fly half, Jack Reilly dump tackled one of the Fullers players,
from the resulting ruck the ball was recycled and he set off on a mazy
run from inside his own half which ended in him scoring under the posts
and converting his own try to make the score 7-0 to Watford. Fullers
looked to be a bigger and more physically intimidating side and managed
to camp the next ten minutes near the Watford line, however though they
had a string of set pieces they were short of ideas behind the scrum
and never really looked like penetrating the Watford defensive line. The Watford centres, prompted by Reilly were looking lively and were breaking tackles at ease. After about 20 minutes left wing Tucker was able to score to the left of the posts after great work by both Bartram and Wilson, the conversion was added to make the score 14-0. The rest of the half passed with the home side enjoying slight territorial dominance, though Watford continued to look far more threatening, both wingers were bundled into touch when they could have scored and the midfield three carried on looking pacy and incisive. The only black spot was the knee injury to inside centre, Wilson who fell awkwardly in the tackle near the opposition try line looked in an excruciating amount of pain and may be out for some weeks as a result. The second half opened with Fullers showing a lot more fire in their bellies with their forwards making yardage though few clear breaks resulted. Watford though were standing up to them and their tight five continued the excellent work from the first half which enabled them to steal a couple of put in's against the head. The pressure that the home side exerted, resulted in a couple of kickable penalties for them, they were grateful to take the six points as they must have realised their chances of breaking the Watford line were thin. Around the middle of the half Watford scored two excellent team tries, with contributions from several players linking together. The first was particularly pleasing on the eye. Andre broke a tackle near the half way line before cunningly offloading to flanker Cox, who was tackled but popped the ball up from the floor to the supporting full back Frankish who was able to spin the ball left and wide to I think Bartram who put Tucker in for a 30 metre dash to the line where the remaining defenders simply bounced off his shirt. The second was scored by new second row Davies who was able to finish a move where the ball had been moved one way, then the other from breakdown to breakdown before the defence was finally breached. Watford really turned the screw when their centre, Bartram made the most of a mis move from the back of a scrum and outpaced the home cover to ground, Reilly converted the try and the score now stood at 31-6 to Watford.Though skipper Thompson exhorted his troops to let 'nothing through' the final score of the game went to the home side who picked and drove from a line out close to the line before battering their way over the line. The conversion was added to make the final score 31-13 to Watford. Danny Bartram was made the man of the match for his consistently threatening breaks every time he got the ball, however crucially the one big advantage Watford had throughout was the pace of their backs, though they were only able to do so due to the platform provided by their pack. Watford 2nd XV are still unbeaten with a record of played four won four as they advance up the merit table. Watford - Dennis Reilly, Vincent, Jones, Andre, Davies, Cox, Smith, Mullins, Thompson, Jack Reilly, Rose, Wilson (Mikey), Bartram, Tucker, Frankish Tries - Tucker (2), Jack Reilly, Bartram, Davies Conversions - Jack Reilly (3) Report - Andy Frankish |
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