RFU senior vase SWF 22 Old Priorians 32

With a side decimated by injuries and late withdrawals SWF knew that they were in for a tough day at Saltcoats as their visitors Old Priorians from Ealing topped their league and are unbeaten this season.
The first ten minutes were fairly even but the powerful OP back line looked very threatening when they had possession and they gave OP a 7-0 lead in the11th minute with s good try. SWF came back and had their opportunities to score but the opposition defence restricted them to a penalty in the 15th minute which Reeve converted to leave the score at 7-3

Both sides cancelled each other out until the 32nd minute when the very impressive OP centre cut through the SWF defence to score a good solo try in the corner, this was the start of a bad spell for SWF when the defence seemed to disappear under the strong running back line which saw the opposition score 2 more tries to leave the score at half time SWF 3 Old Priorians 24. This seemed to kill off any prospects of a SWF fight back, however this team is made of real grit and when Gittos and Gilbert combined at a lineout it was Gilbert who crossed for the try to leave the score at 24-8 and there was the whiff of some hope in the air. The Woodham pack was more than matching the opposition with the whole 8 putting in some massive amounts of work and our defence began to hit their tackles which limited the OP scoring options, they could not prevent a penalty from OP who extended their lead to 27-8 n the 55th minute. They followed this up with a try in the 70th minute to leave the score 32-8 and seemingly game over

The SWF back line began to influence events with their desire for the hard tackles increasing, they began to disrupt the flow of attacking rugby from OPand when a clearance kick from Jenkins bobbled about in the OP 22 he chased his kick down and caused panic enough for brownie to score a spirited try in the 72nd minute which was converted by Reeve to leave it at 32-15. The forwards were carrying the ball well and Gilbert again crossed the line to leave the final score a respectable 32-22 although Gilbert didi think that he had won the game with the try his celebrations were the last action in this game.

A good win for a very good side, we wish them all the best in the future of this competition and we applaud theswf boys for again showing great spirit in the second half to bring respectability to the final scoreline

SQUAD - Gittos Gilbert Gregory Tighe Wilson Marshall Williams NorkettLockwood Reeve Apthorp Brown Reid Price Harper Morgan Jenkins Picky Borthwick
Next week sees the team travel to Wanstead for a massive league game kickoff 2.30