Match Report St Brendan’s 2XV v Old Bristolians 3XV

Beautiful day for a game of rugby and fantastic squad. Had full 22 players. Noteables were the 3 Old Es Blake, Oli and Max who we welcomed into our squad.

Also, return of Owen Badman who should be back more permanently soon and Stuart Rose for a monster truck performance.
Two more new Uni Crusader debuts Luke Parkes and Will Button.

Lastly, two usual 1xv players playing for the 2xv showing the flexibility of our squad and our coaches determination to keep the energy alive, Gustavo Podlech and David Crowley.

Start of the game Old Bs showed us we were up against a good squad when after 2 mins they scored an unsettling try which they converted.
But only 6 mins later Will Button scores a well finished try from a full team effort. Nelly converts and we are 7 apiece.
The match became entrenched with both sides furious for advantage.

Seventeen minutes gone and Euan Davies scores a great crash ball to give us the lead and we are 7-12 to the good.
The game proceeds with us mainly in the ascendency but both sides doggedly determined to defend and attack.
Ben Price, who has been smashing through their defensive line, makes a great run through their defence s arcs off to his left to score a sweetly executed try after 20 mins.

Nelly converts and we are 7-19 to the good.
Only another six minutes pass, when we have pressed Old Bs to their last 5 metres, and they make a forced erratic pass which Nathan Luckhurst captures from the air, turns and weaves through to score a sumptuous try born out of the whole teams pressured attack.
First half ends 7-24 to the good.

The second half starts and Old Bs come out with renewed vigour, but we press them and we do have, by a long margin, the majority of possession in the second half, but fail to convert any of that to scores.

Old Bs, however, score three tries and convert one giving us a final score of 24-24. But we did hold them to the last minute as their final try was last play of the game.

Big, big thanks to all who played yesterday, our opposition, the ref, Phil Cheek and all who came to support.
Lots of good rugby was played by us yesterday and we were up against a very good side. Cavey Vaschalde talked through the lessons we need to learn from the game and we will, no doubt, be putting actions in place at training to further polish future performances.

Outstanding performances, and this is just my view, were Blake Knowlson, Ben Price, Euan Davies, Will Button. Cavey and Nelly both heroic in their games and vocality. But honestly chaps you all played bloody well !
All the best

Kev McGarry manager 2xv