Despite the recent poor weather, the excellent playing surface at Castle Park allowed for a good game of rugby between two mobile sides - although defence ruled the day, with fly-half Dan Storey enjoying a perfect day with the boot to claim 22 of the home side's points.

The first half was an attritional battle, as the majority of the play was confined to the middle third of the field, with a familar theme appearing of either team enjoying short spells of possession, and the defending side giving soft penalties away which led to a scoring sequence of 3-0 to Dan Storey, 3-3 to Medics Full-Back Matt Coxon, 6-3, 6-6, 9-6, 9-9, 9-12, 12-12, until Storey ended the half with one more penalty to give Phoenix the half-time lead at 15-12.

Phoenix came out the stronger in the second half and enjoyed a prolonged period of pressure in the visitors 22, which eventually saw the Medics scrum-half yellow carded for killing the ball. From the resultant penalty, Phoenix applied pressure on the scrum and eventually set up a driving maul which led to hooker Scott Plevey going over for his annual try. Storey converted the try, and almost immediately from the restart kicked another penalty to give Phoenix some breathing space at 25-12.

The Medics' heads didn't drop though, and once restored to their full compliment they applied pressure of their own to the Phoenix line, with their winger eventually scoring a well-worked try in the corner, 25-17.

Phoenix came back at the visitors and following another period of pressure full-back Craig Deakin went over for the final try of the game, with Storey completing a perfect day with the boot to wrap up the scoring for the day at 32-17.

Medics finished the stronger of the teams, however solid defence from Phoenix in the final 5 minutes kept the visitors at bay.

Match sponsors Wilson Field chose flanker Adrian Sheehan as their Man of the Match, despite him being carried from the field with what appeared to be a serious leg injury after 65 minutes - although it later turned out to be a dead leg.

Next week sees a break from league rugby as Phoenix make the short journey to Dinnington to play the second round of the Yorkshire Shield.