The 1st XV on Saturday entered the game against Holt with much fire and frustration after many weeks of struggle. With 5 weeks of training, the attack and defence all came together and the 15 men on the pitch worked as unit for the full 80 minutes. The result of this game was a testament to the potential that this team could bring this season.

1st Half
Immediately from the kick-off, the 1st XV took control of the game and placed themselves in Holt’s 22. After picking up a penalty at 10 minutes, Marcus Dyer sliced the ball between the posts to give us our first points of the game. With phase after phase, the boys then worked their way back into opposition territory and stayed there to take a chance at scoring. The gaps then started to open and somehow an unnamed player from the East scored the first try of the game. Only a minute later with some beautiful handling and good space awareness, Ben McCartney (BBBB) gave us another try. Following on from this, the Medics had possession and dominated the field with a structured attack for most of this half. At 22 minutes, Marcus Dyer made a break and ran as fast as his little legs could take him to be taken down just before the line. Tom Ritchie then followed up with his acrobatic skills and flew over a ruck to score a try. Moments later, Taigh Urquhart also bagged more points by crashing through the defensive line. The 1st XV constantly worked through the phases to conjure up overlaps in Holt’s defence. Lastly, Nat Parmenter took the ball with confidence to get the final try of this half.

2nd Half NMRFC 1st XV 34-0 Holt 2nd XV
With morale high and still so much to prove, the boys put on another impressive half. On the receiving end from the kick-off, Nic James did his best impression of a professional volleyball player to jump and slap the ball from the air into Srinivas Suresh’s hands who charged directly into the fray to make a massive run down the field. By keeping the ball alive, we played against a broken defence and again Srinivas Suresh got the ball to then score a try in the first minute of the 2nd half. After this point, Holt 2s had possession and now wanted to test our defence. It was a constant back and forth battle within our own half. Holt 2s made some big runs, but our defence still held. However, Holt eventually came too close to our line and scored. Despite this slight lull, the Medics maintained composed to play some more brilliant running rugby. Joe Boone and Nat Parmenter put us back on the scoreboard. Our scrum was very powerful due to our front row combination of Tom Martin, Christian Kirk and Nic James. In the last 10 minutes, the forward pack managed to overturn a scrum and this allowed Fabian Rigby to score the penultimate try. The game went into overtime and Tom Jackson ended the game with his own little flair to bag some final points.

FT NMRFC 1st XV 65 – 12 Holt 2nd XV

MOTM – Srinivas Suresh – Was outstanding in both attack and defence
DOTD – Ben McCartney – Unlucky yellow card

Match Report by Philip Ascough