Colts v Austin Friars

Penrith v Austin Friars

A cold night under lights at the appropriately named Winters Park ground saw the Colts run out against Austin Friars School on pitch 2. Friars had a bare 15 players to battle out what was a strongly contested game between two physical sides. Friars spent the majority of the first 35 minutes in Penrith’s half through a combination of physicality up front, and our frequent errors that conceded possession and territory. It was from one of those errors the visitors managed to take in a half time lead of 0- 7 from 5m attacking lineout.

In the second half, we managed to reduce the number of errors and started to move the ball better. The tone was lifted with a quick try at the start of the second half, the tables started to turn in respect of territory and possession but Penrith still struggled to turn pressure into points. Friars successfully defended and cleared their try-line as our rolling rucks broke down on three occasions. Our backline defended well with good line speed and stepped up to the mark in attack with the fly-half and winger going over in open play, final score 17 – 7.

From the kick-off, Penrith was on the back-foot as Friars contested well up front. It took 20 minutes for Penrith to finally break out of their half and for us to start imposing our game. The pack were defending well and scrummaging was good as no doubt the visitors had lads playing out of position. The lineouts were, as usual, a bit of a lottery for both sides. Our resolve was further tested with a lot of the referee’s decisions going against us. The damp/wet ball could be attributed to some loose ball but not all. In time added on we conceded another penalty on our 10m that was kicked with accuracy onto our 5m. A catch and drive initially moved the ball, then a breakaway from the back of the maul down the blindside was thwarted. Friars retained the ball and started to crash off the fringes, but it was a clever dive over the top that broke the deadlock. A successful conversion took Friars into a deserved halftime lead.

We started the second half quickly through scrum-half Tom Kirk, from a ruck he spotted a gap then darted through breaking the first tackle then carried onto the 22m. Support was close at hand, from the breakdown the ball was fed out to find fly-half Fraser Nicholson who was faced with a defensive backline closing up quick. A kick, chase and gather took him over into the corner for the next score with just three minutes into the half. On seventeen minutes we were again testing Friars defence inside the 5m. This time Tom spotted a big gap as the defence was getting drawn in, with a quick ball off the ruck it was spun wide to the outside centre, Joe Robinson who capped off a great passage of play. Fraser added the conversion to take us into a narrow lead, 12 – 7.

In contrast to the first half, Penrith was now the more dominant and playing mostly in the visitors half. We were at our most dangerous in open play and that’s where the next try came from. With just five minutes remaining Penrith finished off the game with a cameo appearance from Louie Johnson on the left-wing. Our defence was turned into attack from a Friars lineout on the Penrith 22m. They retained the ball then spun it out wide, our defence was quick to close them down and the pressure no doubt caused a fumble in the centres. A big boot fly-hacked the ball deep into the visitor's half then the chase was on, a second boot sent the ball over the try-line into the left corner. In the scramble, Louie was the one who got downward pressure for the last score of the game, 17 – 7.

A game of two halves, however, we manage to grind out another win against a good side.