A great open match was played out in Sydney earlier today between UKAF and their New Zealand counterparts to confirm the third and fourth places in the Armed Forces World Cup.
The Kiwis took the lead after 9 minutes with a converted try and held the lead for a further 15 minutes despite UKAF having a try disallowed. Josh Scott crossed for UK on 24 minutes with Ryan Matthews on target with the conversion to tie the match. UKAF were on the score board soon after, George Clarke taking advantage of a NZ knock on to crash over the line, Matthews again on target with the conversion. This strong second quarter performance by UKAF was underlined shortly before half time with an unconverted try for Dave Hankinson to make the half time score 16-6 to the UK side.
The New Zealand struck back shortly after he kick off to close the gap with a well taken try which was converted bringing them within four points of UKAF. The ten point lead was restored soon after the restart with Ryan Matthews crossing for his first try of the tournament which he went on to convert himself, 22-12 after 50 minutes. 5 minutes later UKAF extended their lead with try for Si Wray who reached a personal milestone by scoring in every round of the competition, the try was unconverted so it was 26-12 as the game moved into the last 20 minutes. The New Zealand side were not finished however and a converted try brought them within 8 points of the UK side but this was to be their last scores of the competition. As in the first half UKAF finished strongly Adam Flintham scoring on 70 minutes followed by a second try for George Clarke five minutes later. With a final conversion for Dave Hankinson UKAF finished the tournament on a high with the score at the final whistle 36-18 to UKAF