Honours Even As Shoots and Park House Share The Spoils

Admirably led by Tom Gadsby and welcoming back a number of players for their first outing of the season in Tom Dillon at prop, Ali Welch at hooker, Nathan Morse at 2nd row and Tom Jenks in the centre Shoots kicked off up the slope in the first half.

After weathering an early assault on their line the home side gradually started to gain a foot hold through the pack and worked their way in to the Park House 22 where they remained camped for the next 10 minutes.

Following a series of Park House infringements Shoots opted to take a tap penalty 5 yards out and Dillon who acquitted himself well at tight head crashed over the line for his first try in 7 years in Shoots colours. Conversion missed. 5-0.

However, this period of Shoots dominance energised the opposition and straight from the restart Park House regained possession after the kick wasn't claimed and three passes later the scores were level at 5-5. Conversion missed but a significant wake up call.

Sensing a shift in momentum the Park House backs continued to put pressure on the Shoots defence for much of the remainder of the first half and at times the home side looked ragged as tackles were missed and clearance kicks landed straight in the arms of the diminutive but lightning quick Park House full back.

Shoots were struggling to find any decent territory and the subsequent forced mistakes that followed resulted in 2 further tries in quick succession for the visitors. Both conversions were missed but at 15-5 down Shoots knew they had to score next to remain in contention and they did just that on the stroke of half time. Consecutive indiscretions from Park House at the breakdown handed Shoots a first period of sustained possession and pressure since Dillon's early try and flanker Harry White crashed over to narrow the deficit. Rory Mitchell's conversion hit the post but with the interval score at 10-15 Shoots were back in the game.

Playing down the slope in the 2nd half Shoots were now confident that they could go on and win the game if they stuck to a game plan of keeping the play tight and making good ground around the fringes but it was Park House who struck first through their dangerous back line and with only 10 minutes of the half gone Shoots were again 2 scores down. Conversion missed. 10-20.

Almost immediately afterwards Park House were once again in the ascendancy and looked like taking an unassailable lead when their talismanic prop and skipper Paul Russ broke through on the Shoots 22 and it took all the efforts of wing Ed Cooper and full back John Garrett to haul him down but in doing so Russ sustained an accidental blow to the head that resulted in him having to leave the field.

This turned out to be a significant turning point in the match as whilst the scrums went uncontested depriving Shoots of the facet in the game in which they had been truly dominant it also had the effect of increasing the tempo of play and there was a lot more urgency demonstrated by the home side when in possession, which was used to good effect.

Time and again the Shoots forwards made ground through multiple phases of play working their way in to the Park House 22 in controlled fashion before White went over for his second score of the afternoon. Conversion missed. 15-20.

Sensing that the game was in their grasp the Shoots pack once again made significant inroads in to the Park House half where the visitors could only stem the tide by persistent infringements at the breakdown. With field position and all the momentum Shoots chose the run a penalty 5 yards out since the scrum was no longer an attacking option. The ball worked its way in to the hands of Taylor Buckingham who barrelled over for the equalising score and also his first try for the Club. Conversion missed but at 20-20 and with only a minute remaining Shoots could feel that victory was there for the taking if they could regain possession from the restart. Twice they had opportunities after further incursions in to the Park House 22 but with the match in injury time it wasn't to be and the ball was put dead. Match drawn.

In the circumstances probably a fair result with Park House dominating much of the first half and Shoots the second.

Coach Mark Swannack also cited lots of positives particularly from the 2nd half and the ability to fight back twice from 10 points down. White and Bailey Morgan tackled everything that moved and the scrum was the best it's been so far this season bolstered by the return of Welch at hooker. The lineout also functioned well with John Buckingham and Adam Skinner claiming much of their ball cleanly.

Next Saturday Shoots travel to Alleynians in Dulwich for their first away match of the season. The spirit in the squad is building nicely and facing opponents whom they beat in a friendly 3 weeks ago the scene is set for another good match.