Belsize Park Friendly

After receiving a walkover from Old Dunstonians for the opening league game of the season, much credit should go to the fixtures committee for arranging a challenge game against Belsize Park. The game kicked off at the cage at 1pm before the 1st team game. Belsize had a bare team but reinforcements were supplied by Southwark to ensure a competitive game.

The game was played over four quarters to allow easier rotation of the larger Southwark squad. The first quarter started at a high intensity which was kept up throughout the game with both teams being made up of light mobile packs. Southwark scored first through a close in penalty followed by a well worked try by Bertie which started with the forwards sucking in the Belsize defence through a few phases on the right before spreading the ball quickly through the hands to the left side of the pitch. Some poor handling near the try line scuppered one or two good opportunities for Southwark to stretch their lead. Belsize were well up for the game and took it to Southwark at every opportunity and they had the majority of the possession in the first two quarters. They pulled a try back with some powerful phase rugby with the Southwark defence eventually being breached. Their second came from a deep kick into the Southwark 22, which Southwark attempted to run back diagonally across the pitch before being rushed into a poor kick to the Belsize full-back. A feature of the Southwark defence all match has their slowness to come up as a line and this allowed Belsize to run in a reasonably easy try.
Southwark responded well and although their line-out was shaky in the first half, they dominated in the scrum which gave a good platform for the back line to attack.
Southwark kicked off the second half with five changes and probably had their best quarter of the game with more control on the ball and the forwards working together in attack rather than some of the solo runs that was a feature of the first half. Southwark again scored first with a beautiful try that came from a backs move practiced before the game. Southwark won their lineout in the Belsize 22 and sharp passing from Blair to Bob and onto to Aaron before a nice pop-pass to Israel saw him break through the Belsize defence to score under the posts. Both teams traded tries as tired legs saw the space opening up. Injures on the Belsize team saw them being lent further players but the game remained competitive to the end with Aaron running in two further tries including a break-away with ten minutes remaining. Some sloppy defending by Southwark in the final minutes saw them give away another try but they still held on to win 39-34.