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| Vigo A XV 17 Medway A XV 10 |
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| Written by Kelly Ackary | |
| Tuesday, 02 February 2010 | |
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In a highly entertaining match, much credit to both sides but especially Medway, who agreed to play on a tricky pitch. Vigo, in fact, beat Medway twice on the day. The League match was called off by Medway 3rds was cancelled due to unavailability , but Medway 2nd, themselves victims of a late cry off, offered to play a friendly instead.
Thus, two teams benefitted from match play, excellent training for their respective League campaigns. Vigo’s, A XV, seemingly sponsored by Saga, are on something of a role lately, and started confidently. Giving debuts to Polish duo, Pawel Letowski and Jakob Lisiewski, Vigo gained early reward. Moving the ball sweetly along the line, Letowski came off the wing to make the extra man, the ageless Bob Fitton hit the gap and scuttled over to open the scoring. Vigo continued to press, even tackling themselves in their eagerness to attack their visitors, although the tackle by Max Gregory on Colin Luck was rather like a meerkat attacking a giraffe. In this case, the giraffe came off second best, but delayed reaction also saw the meerkat go down like a fat dog on wet lino, albeit a few minutes later. Back to the match as Vigo extended their lead. From a scrum, Vigo swung the ball wide, recycled with alacrity and the hugely promising Steve Hurdle flew down the wing. Although stopped just short, second row, Carl Nightingale stretched over the line for the try. Fitton, eschewing his Torvill and Dean impression, kept his feet to convert for a handy half time lead of 12-0. Medway, a League higher than Vigo, demonstrated why and fought back strongly. Perhaps, second best in the scrum, they showed a bit more cohesion than Vigo, beset as they were by the same selection problems as the senior side. This extra cohesion saw them cross for a brace of tries to set up an absorbing finale. Perhaps, disconcerted by the svelte prop, Pete Hayward, being forced to play in his underpants as his shorts were ripped off in the tackle, thus demonstrating the first camel toe seen on Kent playing fields, Medway were unable to widen the breach this brace of scores had made. Vigo, whose esprit de corps help to overcome technical deficiencies, defended doughtily and gained due reward with a late, late try by Hurdle which decided the outcome. All credit to both sides who rose above a tricky pitch to put on an entertaining match, as Vigo demonstrated the spirit of grass roots rugby by ‘lending’ two players to Medway whose ranks were depleted by injury. Team: R.Fitton; S.Hurdle, M.Griffiths, D.Wiltshire, P.Letowski; D.Ackary (rep: P.Gibbons),G.Langdon; J.Miles, P.Hayward, S.Christmas; C.Luck, C.Nightingale; J.Lisiewski, M.Gregory; C.Hayward. (Tries: C. Nightingale, R.Fitton, S.Hurdle. Con: R.Fitton (1) ) Referee: S.Turner (Kent SRFUR) Man of the match. A close run thing between Colin Luck and ‘Deano’, with Colin edging out his erstwhile second row colleague, mainly due to Deano withdrawing his services in the warm up. The Polish duo made promising debuts, whilst Steve Hurdle continued his rugby education and will surely be pushing for promotion soon. |
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