On a freezing cold day Moderns took to the field to pit their wits against Sleaford in what was a ‘double header’ following the big freeze at Xmas . The usual team talk of lets start from the kickoff and not give them a two try head start actually happened!
Winning the toss, Sleaford chose to kick (they must have seen Parr in the warm up) leaving Moderns with the choice of ends. Moderns chose to start the game playing up the slope and from the kick off Parr duly obliged by knocking on.
From the off, Moderns looked to consolidate possession and spread the ball. 5 minutes in and the first score came. Moderns retained the ball for 4 or 5 phases through excellent work at the breakdown (a feature all day), the ball served on a plate to Slack went through four sets of hands allowing Peasey to go in at the corner.
As the game began to take shape, Moderns grew in confidence and had the lions share of territory and possession. Even Barlow was popping up at inside centre (steady George!) Another 10 minutes passed and Moderns were in again. Good work in the loose saw the ball to McKegney who spotting a gap behind the defence, chipped over and Rollings ran through to collect the bounce and saunter in under the sticks.
The target now was two fold, firstly to get two more tries to secure the double bonus point and secondly to see if Parr could catch a kickoff (and he was going to get much practice). The first was achieved just before half time through a second by Rollings and then a well deserved forwards try culminating in ‘newby’ Pete O’Connor (who ran around like a mentalist all day) barging over from short range. From the resulting kickoff Parr fulfilled his side of the bargain, actually caught the ball, promptly got mullered by the charging Sleaford pack and knocked on. (Oh dear Matt, I feel an award looming!)
22-0 at halftime
With a feeling that the game was all but won, the halftime talk was about keeping our shape, running our patterns and putting the game to bed. A couple of substitutions brought the returning Pete Hale in at hooker and debutant Harry Alexander in at open side – both were to have excellent games.
Playing down the slope and with what seemed an endless supply of excellent ball, Moderns started to rip through the Sleaford defence on a regular basis. Not just through the backs but the forwards as well. Further tries came on a regular basis. Rollings completed his hat trick, Barney scored a long range brace, Martin Dobson got his first for the club and Fitton went over in the other corner after another shocking dummy.
Fitton left the pitch with 20 mins to go with a reoccurrence of the laziness injury and Woodward came on to contribute two further tries. Try of the game was scored by Slack (although nothing to do with Slack himself really). Moderns had moved the ball well across the line to Rollings who checked by his opposite number off loaded to Harry Alexander. He went half through a gap, popped to Churchy who in turn continued towards the line. He probably could have scored it himself but very generously (a back would never have passed at this point) passed inside to Slacky who almost apologetically jogged the last yard or so under the sticks. That was the end of the scoring.
Its worth pointing out at this point that credit should go to Sleaford as although they were being pulled all over the place, they never gave up, optimised by a fantastic cover tackle in the corner by their scrumhalf with a couple of minutes to go. If you were awarded points for effort not tries, it would have been a much closer game.
The game was played in excellent spirit and McIntyre even thought it fitting to have a kiss and a cuddle with their number 8 at one particular breakdown (I think that’s what they were doing?).
Overall, a fantastic display and a benchmark for the rest of the season. Maximum points x 2 means we’re in a strong position in the league so same again next week!
MOTM – Very difficult as everyone played very well. The decision goes to McIntyre who did so much unseen work to allow the fairies the glory.
DOTD – No contest…Matt (The Dick) Parr. |