LORAC 31 - 5 Old Pats Academy

LORAC turned up at Old Pat ready to shed the previous weekend's disappointed against Newbury, of their shoulders. Knowing full well that we had given that game to Newbury on the day, LORAC were not about to see the same errors re-occur again.

After a solid hours warm-up with some not too gentle exercises to "get the collision in them", LORAC were firing on all pistons come the starting whistle. Both teams traded some blows in the first 10 minutes of the game and forced some errors on eachother.

LORAC starting uphill and against the wind dictated a 12-point advantage was begging for Old Pats, but LORac held strong and kept fighting back into enemy territory.

A penalty kick was missed (hit the post) but pitch position was still maintained with a good chase and nslaught of pressure. Possessions was regained and the man-of-the-match, Calum Courtney drew a great line off the fly-half (Josh Sissons) to cut straight through the opposition defense to run in under the posts from outside the 22. Reports say that Courtney seemed "surprised", but if you pick lines like that, you will more often than not come out the better. Conversion made by Sissons, 7-0.

After the restart, LORAC remained in opposition territory. Old Pats constantly showed strength at the breakdown which consumed a lot of LORAC's forwardsjust to secure our own ball. Quite a few turnovers occurred, not to mentioned a few unforced errors which enabled Old Pats to kick down field but LORAC din't lose their heads and kept trudging back to the opposition try-line.

Most of the 2nd half timed-out until a moment of vision from Sissons ont he half-way line. Ball comes out from a breakdown, dummy scissors and go....Sissons breaks the line and creates a 2 v 1 all the way in the Old Pats 22 where Sam Hounslow is in support. The pass reaches the target (the passing a noted improvement for the academy all-round) and Hounslow then puts all the supporters hearts in their mouths by side-stepping inside the fullback (instead of into open space). Hounslow scores the try non the less under the posts. An well accomplished team try that started from good vision, good decoy lines and great support. Sisson converts the try to make it 14-0.

HALF-TIME

The second half was no different from the first apart from LORAC challenging themselves to get 4 tries this half, instead of the 1st effort of 2.

They weren't far off with some very solid shows of team unity, running our system and playing their rugby on top of it, as a team.

Tries starting to come in after the initial 10 minutes of the second half elapsed. Phase after phase took us to the opposition five metre line and all our backs were complimenting open-side. Lewis Etheridge spots the space with Pablo Pepiol and Luke Boyd (now fly-half) fires himself in to the blind channel off the back of the scrum just off mid-field position and receives a dirty ball as the Old Pats 9 manages to disrupt. The ball is taken in, the forwards secure and quick ball gets out to Pablo Pepiol who draws the man and puts Etheridge in for a well take try out wide. Luke Boyd make a good effort to convert but comes just short.

From a scrum on our 10 metre line, Old Pats gained a consolation try with their 8 picking and beating 3 defenders to run in out wide.

The team recollect and Pepiol then grabs a brace of tries to conclude the game. His first try is off a very well worked team move just outside the 22 for him to slice through and run it in under the posts, and the second is in similar style to Lewis Etheridges previous try but this time with Etheridge returning the favour and setting Pepiol in the corner. Boyd missing both conversions.

The game can be swiftly summarised as a good day in the office and with the fixture being an away game...it makes it even sweeter.

Lots to work on as usual for the Academy but the aim of the day for LORAC was to rid themselves of the weight of dissapointed on their shoulders from the previous weekends display against Newbury. They certainly did that.

Tuesday's session this week see's a return to the grind stone and focus on keeping our heads for the remainder of this season.

Well done LORAC.