60 minute match

Saturday 26th August

Halstead v Felixstowe

It was a very warm welcome when we travelled to Halstead rugby club this weekend, from the club themselves and the weather, each club agreed in advance that we would play 4 x 20 min, allowing for quick team talks and fortunately water breaks.

It was very good to have a few helpers and supporters on the sidelines, thanks to Chris Low for being touch judge, Emma for First aid and Imiie for coming along with her hangover to keep and eye on the scrum / line outs ready for training Thursday.

We started the game with one substitute, Matt Watkins who had made a great effort to make himself available, and Matt got plenty of game time.

We kicked off at 3pm and by 3.15 we were 12-0 down, Halstead started like lightning, fast ball down the back line and brilliant support running, 6 consecutive passes for outside and inside runners and they were in the corner, conversion missed.
They soon ran through again in a similar fashion and converted to go 12-0 up.
Felixstowe shook off the early blows and began keeping the game tighter, the scrum was standing up well to the Halstead pack and the back line were testing the Halstead defence every opportunity.
Before half time Mike Anderson burst through the middle and with a one on one facing the full back he looked left and saw the great support run from James Shenfield who took the pass and raced in under the posts, Steve Britchfield converted to make it 12-7.

The second half started with a very closely fought game, 20 mins battling up and down the pitch when Halstead ran through to score and make it 17 - 7, after the 60 minutes passed Halstead had used a number of substitutions and ran away on the scoreboard.

It was a great first game from Felixstowe, with a few new faces, a number of people who have not been able to train and a few regulars we showed the potential there is at the club.

Phil Colbourn was awarded Man of the Match for a fantastic first competitive game, strong in the scrum, excellent in the line out and working around the pitch, Gareth Carr was awarded for his great effort around the pitch, giving away a number of penalties at the restart kicks and despite telling everyone stay together he took a quick tap penalty and ran off on his own.

Other notable mentions go to Max Goodwin for playing late notice, Andy Osborne for making his comeback on the wing and James Shenfield for playing.

It was a good day and a very positive start.