Test Final - Escath XV vs. Thunder RFC (vBookie)

15:45: Thunder secure the ball out of a hotly contested scrum. Luke Pilgrim throws the wide pass out to Damien Taylor. Taylor gets a run on and suddenly bursts through the Escath defensive line! 10m on the Escath side of the half! How far can Taylor make?

 

...Taylor stumbles on his way to the line, and it costs him valuable seconds to get back up. The unlikely figure of David Dafter manages to get back and stop Taylor from making it all the way. He burned up a lot of metres there, and the forwards from both sides are clearly feeling the heat as they slowly get to the ruck. 8m from the Escath line here, a timely tackle from Dafter.

Oh, but what's this? After all that work, the Escath forwards have their hands on their heads and the Thunder forwards clap furiously. The ref has awarded a penalty to the Thunder. Smith clearly had his hands in the ruck there, trying to slow the play down. That's a penalty to the Thunder, and it's no surprise in these conditions that they opt for the three points.

Scoble nails that one. The Thunder take the lead. 3 - 0

 

18:00: Penalty to Escath on the halfway line. Michael Chung adjudged off side at that ruck. Harsh call from the referee.

Loughman punts the ball into touch 20m further down field. Smith with a good throw there, and that man James McDougal takes an easy catch in the lineout. That's knocked off to Joshua Ritchie who gets a few yards with his head down, before another good tackle from Tom Delonge. Dafter & Davis come into secure the ball in the ruck, with support from the unlikely figure of Lucas Schaw to take the ball out.

Thunder have telegraphed that play though, and Schaw is smashed by Marcuss Deane. A hint of off side in that, but play continues. Davis again comes in and helps secure the ball.

Loughman takes the ball out, darts a dummy and passes away to Gareth Weaver! Weaver in space!

 

8m. Easy three points, far from guaranteed five. Could have gone for the line out, but Escath have the dominant lock pairing.

 

...but the cover defense are there. Only 10m from the line now, but Weaver spies the danger and passes a nice pass onto the on-running Schaw. Schaw tackled by Callum Laing, but Laing has no support and the ball is quickly extracted. Off to Sam Graham who's nicely tackled by Adam Vago with the help of Marcuss Deane. Deane's hands all over that, but Davis comes in and barges him off the ball.

The ball comes out to Golding. He's spotted something here, and attempts the grubber through the defensive line, but that's simply not come off.

Regan Hutchinson grabs the ball, but there's Escath bodies all around him. Schaw makes the tackle (!!!!!) and Simon Humble comes in right behind him. David Dafter the crucially negates Tom Delonge and Escath are all over this. But the ref blows his whistle. I was wondering why the ball wasn't coming free. Hutchinson pinged for not releasing the ball.

Penalty to Escath from 12m out. Loughman opts for the 3 points and levels the scores.

 

27:30: That's a collapsed scrum. The referee has a few words with the Thunder front row. Not sure what that was all about. The reset scrum allows the Escath scrum to get a great contact, and they're pushing the Thunder scrum back. Over the 22m line here. They've pushed them back about 8 or 9 metres from this scrum.

Just over the 22m line, the ball comes out to Loughman who takes a run round the side of the scrum. With the forwards still at the ruck, Vago makes an opportunistic tackle. Where are the big Escath forwards? Davis gets there, but Chung and Deane are proving a resilient obstacle.

Oh, there goes that whistle again. Thunder sanctioned for Hands in the Ruck. The penalty count really is racking up. No surprise that Loughman again opts for the kick. It's a tricky one. 20m distance from about 5m in from the side line.

 

...but he misses. The scores remain locked at 3 a piece.