After the recent postponements due to the weather, it was good to welcome Telford back to the Veseyans for a rearranged Cup fixture on a blustery but fine afternoon. The home side decided to play up the hill and against the wind first half and after a reasonable start the visitors kicked the first points to take a 0-3 lead. However, the home team had come with an attitude to play an expansive and intense brand of rugby and from a scrum in the visitors half a great line was cut by outside centre Noah Miller which splintered their defence before dropping it off to the excellent Warwick Pallister to make it 7-3.
The visitors were not deterred and after good passages of play from both teams, they found themselves with a lineout on Veseyans 5m line. A well-constructed move off the front of the line allowed them to crash over in the corner and restore their slender lead, 7-8. Shortly after with the home side finding it difficult to relieve pressure due to the strength of the wind some poor defensive decisions allowed the visitors to take a 7-13 lead. With 25 minutes gone the home side continued to play and from consecutive penalties the ball was played quickly resulting with Max Powell crashing over for the first of his 3 tries. Another quick tap penalty and the ball was moved swiftly out where Max strolled over and the scoreboard now had a healthy 21-13 lead against difficult conditions. Undeterred the visitors continued to carry hard and when the home side overplayed in their own 22 from the resulting scrum the visitors went through the phases and scored in the corner......21-20 at half time and an excellent competition between 2 sides with different styles was in the balance.
With the wind on their back the home side set about building pressure and restricting the visitors any easy exits from their own half. From a line out steel in the visitors half the ball fell to Max Powell and he galloped in from 30 yards out to complete his hat trick and seal his man of the match performance. The visitors continued to run the ball but the defence of the home side simply would not allow them to get out of their half and eventually the ball was turned over and slick hands put Jamie Higinbotham in next to the posts and the score moved on to 35-20. With defence dominating the rest of the game no further scores were made by either side and the home team recorded their second win of the season....against the same opposition.
After a couple of weeks lay off the whole 17 man squad were outstanding with the skipper, Max Powell, leading the way. The intensity of the defence and the ambition the team wanted to play with was a credit to the them all and has now created the platform to progress into the next phase of the cup.
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