St Francis Rugby Football Club

St. Francis Rugby Football Club

Southgate Pavilion,

Southgate Avenue, Crawley,

West Sussex, RH10 6HG

 

St Francis 54 – Bognor 14 – Saturday 19th November

St Francis started the match in the same manner they ended the last, going forward, composed and up for a win. Within minutes of the start the pressure exerted on the visitors resulted with an early penalty kick at goal which was surprisingly missed by Kenny, who then went on to slot his next seven from eight attempts with ease.

The first score of the game came after 8 minutes following a quick ruck ball going wide to Searle who beat two defenders as he sprinted to the corner. A few minutes later an almost identical try by Kelly after some superb forward play again allowed the backline to show their pace.

Saints started to try and force the play for the next few minutes and some simple handling errors allowed the Bognor centre his first touch of the ball and a 60 metre run to score under the home teams posts.

Saints composed themselves and started to build up phases of attack through the forwards which allowed scrum half Smyth and fly half Harrison to release the backs on several occasions, but the Bognor defence held strong. A long clearance kick from the visitors saw them penetrate into the Saints half and the bounce of the ball went the way of the chasing winger who kept control until support arrived. An newly enthused Bognor now imposed their own pressure and were rewarded with their second try under the posts and a levelled score line.

The home side came straight back with Norrie, Nabney, Porter and Perry dominating the loose play and Sparkes, Arney, Riley and Roadnight clearing out ruck after ruck given the backs excellent ball from which good pace, hands and support saw Gorm Young sprint under the posts.

The visitors changed their strategy and began kicking over the Saints defences but Kenny, playing in his newly discovered full back position, covered the visitors efforts and renewed the Saints attacks with some excellent kicking deep into the Bognor half.

As the Bognor centre tried to run through the Saints line a tackle from Guy Young stopped him in his tracks allowing Kelly to strip the ball for a sprint under the posts for his second try.

The second half continued with Saints dictating the play, a well worked phase from a shortened lineout saw Perry pop the ball up for Arney to cross the line. Some fantastic support play between the whole backline saw Searle and Gorm Young both sprinting 50 metres for another try apiece. Some fresh legs were introduced in the form of re-placements Hand, McCormack and Leonard and it was not many minutes before some sustained forward pressure saw Hand cross the line with an offload from Norrie for the final score of the game.

Try Scorers: Ben Searle (2) Matt Kelly (2) Gorm Young (2) Will Arney, Steven Hand

Conversions: Shane Kenny (7) Man of the Match: Adrian Perry.

Team:

Riley, Perry, Sparks, Arney, Roadnight, Porter, Nabney, Norrie, Smythe, Harrison, Kelly, Young, Searle, Young, Kenny, Hand, Leonard, McCormack

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St Francis 1st XV 9  - Ditchling 1st XV 3 –  Sussex “Canterbury Jack” Intermediate League (H) 12th November

St Francis returned to league action this weekend with a hard fought battle against Ditchling.

The home side started well pushing the visitors deep into their own half, but a well chased clearance kick and the luck off the bounce quickly found Saints defending their own line where a lapse in concentration gifted Ditchling with a penalty in front of the posts which was easily converted into 3 points by ex-Saints player Parish.

From the restart neither side managed to take a grip on the game and many unforced errors turned the next twenty minutes into a scrumaging practice which the Saints front row of Riley, Perry and Sparks dominated.

As both sides started to settle in to the game the Saints back line managed to break the visitors defences several times from which they were awarded two penalties which were easily converted by Kenny.

In the dying minutes of the first half a covering tackle by Young was judged to be too high and the yellow card that followed left Saints starting the second half 6-3 up but with only 14 men on the pitch.

Ditchling worked hard to use the extra man advantage but some aggressive defence lead by Jude Harrison and Sami Singh pulled the Saints together and the forwards started to take control of the game. Some well worked forward play released the backs several times and one visit deep into the visitors half again rewarded Kenny with another successful penalty kick at goal.

The final ten minutes was fast and furious as the visitors tried to break the Saints defences time after time but the home side dug deep to maintain their lead until the final whistle.

Man of the Match: Jude Harrison

Team: Dean Riley, Aide Perry, Paul Sparks, Will Arney, Gav Porter, Sami Singh, Steve Hand, Jack Norrie, James Smythe, Jude Harrison, Tom Bruce, Guy Young, Ben Searle, Gorm Young, Shane Kenny, Immi Singh, Will Roadnight, Tim Rogers

 

LADIES RUGBY

St Francis Ladies 87 –  Old Dunstonians 14  - NC South East East 3  13th November

St Francis Ladies rugby team finally got their season off to a great start with a convincing victory against Old Dunstonians. Within minutes of the starting whistle the first points were already on the score board, the forwards secured the ball quickly allowing the backs to move it along the line. A simple offload out of the tackle from fly half Megan Rees to Centre Mel Taylor gave her the space to run in the first try of the game, converted by scrum half Emma Grisman. The backline combination worked extremely well from the beginning resulting in two more tries for Mel Taylor.

Captain, Jules France lead by example working hard in the forwards and around the pitch linking up with the backs to score her first try of the season, a sprint from half way to touch down under the posts. The forwards played hard working well as a unit throughout the whole match giving the backs the opportunity to score more tries, one each from Fizz Howes-Yarlett, Nina Evans, Anna Dibbo and playing in her first ever game Fiona Clark chased a kick from fly half Rees to score in the corner. Rambo Peterbro added three more, each time storming through the opposition defence, captain France also added two more to her tally.

All but two tries were converted, four by Rees and an impressive seven by Grisman.

Overall an outstanding team performance with a promising season ahead of them.

Team:

D.Croft; E-J Allcott; A. Phillips; L. Bennett; J. France; E. Grisman; M. Rees; M. Taylor; F Howes-Yarlett;
A. Dibbo; F. Clark; A. Young; L. Webb; R. Peterbro; N. Evans

 

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