Maldon 19-28 Beccles Bulls

Eastern Counties 1

20/10/01

In a top-of-the-table clash 2 unbeaten sides positioned 2nd and 3rd respectively had a lot to play for . The Bulls travelled with a much-changed pack still missing key personnel in Moon , Kingston , Ley and Shales and also Gareth Hadridge in the backs. Luckily David Rix was home on leave from the Army to help fill a vacancy and the 'young-front-row' was also called on to start for the 2nd time this season and Denny Pyle received his call up for the 1st time this season in the three-quarters.

This reshuffle and the journey did not help the Bulls and they certainly started the match poorly allowing what materialised to be quite a limited home team to open the scoring with a soft converted try under the posts from the scrum-half when hesitant tackling mid-field allowed him to wander in almost uncontested.

The Bulls marched up field in retaliation from the kick-off but had to settle for a penalty from Jon Puxley as scant reward for the effort after Maldon continually infringed the ruck.

The Maldon pack , although limited in tactics, had obviously drilled well with what they did have and played most of the match with '1 off 'in the loose and this did work effectively. Using this tactic continuously they replied with a try to increase their score to 12 points and the worrying '2 score' gap between the 2 sides. With this advantage under their belt they increased the pressure and dominated for most of the 1st half. Luckily on one of their periods of attack a crunching tackle by Beccles mid-field turned over possession is the shape of a spilled ball that was hacked on by Turrell and Kerry with Kerry winning the race for the touchdown. Puxley added the conversion to give a more respectable half-time score of 12-10 in favour of Maldon.

A stiff half-time lecture from Skipper Hadridge galvanised the Bulls who started to force Maldon into errors up front , much of it due to lack of understanding of some of the finer points of law which the Referee was quite happy to explain as he marched them back 10 meters. From one such occasion Puxley stepped up to claim 3 points to give the Bulls the slenderest of leads for the 1st time and which ultimately they never relinquished for the remainder of the match.

From the restart one of the best drives of the match allowed the Bulls to recycle possession a number of times which lead to Puxley finding hooker Lake in close support who barrelled through to go 'airborne' in fine style under the posts. Puxley added the conversion to turn the match in the Bulls favour with their own '2-score' advantage.

Maldon , down but by no means out , responded immediately and in what should have been an easily defended attack they brought their fullback into play in a telegraphed move, which should have seen him levelled on the Beccles 22-metre line. Unfortunately Turrell decided the easiest option , rather than a simple head-on-tackle was to attempt to intercept the pass at high speed , a lesson hopefully learned , which allowed this very basic move to produce a try under the Bulls posts which was gratefully accepted and converted.

Hanging onto the slenderest of leads Beccles finally started to get into their usual game with some driving forward play intermixed with smooth three-quarter passages. The game was sealed after a series of scrummages were picked up and driven blind-side by No8 Warnes. After 3 of these in quick succession brought the Bulls close to Maldon's try line the hosts stacked their defence in expectation of a 4th attempt. Giving the perfect opportunity for Bulls skipper and scrumhalf Hadridge to take the ball himself and ghost through the flat-footed defence untouched. Puxley added the conversion from wide out in textbook manner to give himself a 100% hit rate on the day.

Although by no means a great performance the Bulls can take credit from this hard-fought encounter by showing great determination to win a match that could easily have slipped out of their grasp. Missing key personnel Beccles have been forced to utilise players in the squad who may have not been considered at the start of the season , all of whom have proven their worth. This promises great competition when the list of injured and unavailable players reduces as the season continues , hopefully!

Regardless of this the Bulls can take great heart from the fact that , although playing rugby well below their usual standard with an injury hit side , they are still winning crucial league games.

Could another promotion be too much to hope for this early in the season?

Andy Warnes.

Beccles Press Officer.