| STORM BOUNCE BACK |
| Saturday, 03 July 2010 20:09 |
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RLC Sussex Merlins 50 South London Storm 'A' 20 Two minutes later it was 18-4, Portsmouth fly hacked a loose ball back towards their try line and Jim Berry was first to react, grounding the ball. McCarthy again converted. Storm were now running riot and on twenty minutes McCarthy was on hand to put the finishing touches to a fine move involving Matt Smith and Tom Pryor. He converted his own try for a 24-4 lead. The half hour mark saw winger Aaron Brown display his devastating pace for the first time in the game, released by Pete Maddigan he showed a clean pare of heals to the Portsmouth defence to score in the right corner. 28-4 Two minutes later Maddigan added his name to the scorers as he burst through the defence on a 40 metre dash to the posts. McCarthy converted. 34-4 Storm switched off in the last five minutes of the half and allowed the visitors to score two well worked tries firstly to winger Ed Gaught and then through Joe Reese. Neither try was converted so Storm went in 34-12 to the good at half time. The score became 40-12 just after the break as Jim Berry was set up by Bonnor. McCarthy again goaled. The rest of the half was very even as Portsmouth more than matched the home team. Some fine expansive play led to Chander grabbing his second try of the day and although a typical Luke Bonnor try from dummy half on the hour pulled Storm 44-18 ahead With nine minutes to go Brown again showed devestating speed and made it 48-18. Portsmouth had the last laugh though and added to scores in the last five minutes through Nick Bentley and Gaught to leave the final score at 48-28 Game breaker - Lee McCarthy put Storm 24-4 ahead on the twenty minute mark. The visitors were never going to come back from that Storm man of the match - Ewen Drummond worked hard in the unfamiliar position of prop, Luke Bonnor was again at the heart of all Storms best attacks but the man of the match goes to the tireless Mike Benson Portsmouth man of the match - half back James Wagstaff never stopped prompting and encouraging his team Storm line up - brett murphy, lee mccarthy, pete maddigan, tom pryor, aaron brown, phill berry, james berry, matt chapman, luke bonnor, ewen drummond, matt smith, shun tamura, mike benson. Subs- andy gilvary, george coogan, neil templeman Portsmouth line up - dan muir, luke chander, nick bentley, joe reese, ed gaught, james mcseveny, james wagstaff, dan sargant, dane smallbon, chris thompson, wayne john, graham bunterbury, tommy booth. Subs- omsed martin, rich booth, harrison booth. July 10th sees both grades at home. The 'A' team face Elmbridge at 1pm followed by the first team at 3pm against Hainault South London storm 'A' took a depleted squad down to Sussex merlins and despite the 50-20 scoreline came away with their heads held high. In difficult circumstances the storm team battled hard and to their credit scored 4 trys, the first came from a good kick into space from half back Rob Mitchell that was chased down by Andrew vernon dribbling around the Sussex full back to score. A scoot from daniellie saccardi to score under the posts which was converted by Rob Mitchell kept the visitors in the game for a while Storm continued to pose a threat in the second half and dave gregson scored a cheeky try converted by Stephen Greene. In a moved that epitomised storms never say die attitude some good interplay off a scrum by rob Mitchell and dave Barratt released kuda zhandire who ran the ball in from 70 yards in the last play of the game. |
RLCP South London Storm 48 Portsmouth 28
