Beccles Bulls 38-5 Old Edwardians

Eastern Counties 1

17/11/01

The Bulls maintained their position at the top of Eastern Counties Division 1 with a workmanlike dismissal of lowly positioned Old Eds, although it must be said on occasion it looked like the entire team was 'working' on an hourly rate and as such played without any real sense of urgency. This week saw yet another reorganised squad with injuries last week to Darren Ley and Dave Kingston, the 1st choice lineout experts, and Keith Johnstone and Darren Maier got their 1st team call up. This reshuffle and playing without key lineout players could be used as an excuse for a less than clinical performance, but if promotion is to be won this year the side has to get used to significant squad rotations and the effect to team performance on the day should be negligible. Beccles have yet to master this, but seem to keep winning anyway!

Old Ed's were uninspiring granted, but equally were not deficient in any area. Their pack gave the usual tussle up front in the scrummage and fought well in the lineout, but in this area for sure the Bulls should have dominated more than they did. Hooker Lake, whilst improving week on week commendably in the loose play needs to be more exacting in his accuracy of lineout throwing, although timing with new jumpers this week can of course take a share of the blame also.

The Bulls opened the scoring after only 10 minutes when full back Matt Kerry sprinted through onto a Jon Payne chip ahead in the visitors 22-metre and easily won the race for the try. Payne missed the conversion.

Keith Johnstone added another try 10 minutes later after some surging runs by the Bulls back row moved play close to the visitors try line. Skipper Hadridge recycled the ball and found young Johnstone perfectly positioned and with excellent style he drove through some despairing Old Ed's tacklers. This time Puxley slotted the conversion from in front of the posts.

After some mediocre play midfield the Bulls has a turn of bad luck when young tight-head prop Matt Tate had to leave the field with an ankle injury. His availability will be sorely missed if it continues for any length of time. Prop Lee Moon joined the fray, himself returning from a niggling back injury and his experienced helped in settling the scrum. Unfortunately his arrival didn't have the same effect on the lineout and on many times the Bulls should have secured positional advantage deep in the visitors half but turned the ball over at the lineout to lose it. The Old Ed's fly half punished Beccles on every occasion as he punted the ball 30-40 metres back down the pitch.

A 12 - 0 score line at half time flattered the visitors and the Bulls have to acknowledge this fact.

Early in the second half after some good drives from the forwards the Bulls three-quarters spread the ball wide with Dilly Dawson making the ball available to No8 Warnes in support to crunch over for a try, the conversion unfortunately was not added.

The next and only score came from Old Ed's in a rare foray into the Bulls 22 metre they secured lineout possession to set-up a trundling driven maul which eventually dropped over the Bulls try line for hooker P.Harris to emerge with the ball and claim the try. Their kicker too missed a fairly easy conversion, not a day for scintillating spot kicking it would seem.

The rest of the game was all Beccles and to be fair the scores came at regular intervals, although there could have been more if the work rate and accuracy had matched ambition.

Inside centre Dawson grabbed a fine brace of tries after some fine examples of his trademark direct running mid-field, however his ball distribution needs work to really make the position his own on a regular basis.

Young winger Will James debuted competently and played with a maturity that bodes well for the future, he could have grabbed himself a try but this will have to wait until next time.

Winger Pete Anderson's patience was finally rewarded when he finally received the ball and weaved through half a dozen tacklers to score the most entertaining try of the match, he could have been in for more had the ball been spun wide to glaring overlaps on more than 3 occasions.

All 3 second half tries were near the posts which allowed Puxley to add the conversions which gave a final score line of 38-5 in favour of the Bulls. Suffice to say although this was a competent win it was fairly uninspiring fare for the loyal spectators and could have probably been 60 points with some astute endeavour from the home side.

Andy Warnes.

Beccles Press Officer.