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MATCH REPORT – HMS ENDURANCE v UNITED SERVICES ARGENTINA
HMS ENDURANCE 14 v UNITED SERVICES ARGENTINA 38
On a hot and humid Saturday morning, HMS ENDURANCE rugby team arrived at the home of the United Services Argentina rugby ground, and were welcomed by a senior Argentine Naval Officer. On arrival Endurance were impressed with the pitch and the changing facilities and were well looked after with plenty of water being thrown their way!
The ENDURANCE team took the field, and for many in the team it was a first time experience entering a rugby field for a real game of rugby. The team had several training session at sea on transit to Buenos Aires, however this was the first time the team had played together.
At the kick off ENDURANCE kicked towards the US team, and from the start all the ENDURANCE team got stuck in. However after 5 mins of play, due to the lack of experience in the ENDURANCE team the US team broke the deadlock with a well worked try up the middle of the pitch. This was how the game continued, the US Team whose season had just finished were keeping the ball alive well and off loading out of the tackles. After 25 mins of play ENDURANCE found themselves 24-nil down, and the ref blew for the end of the first third(The game was spilt into 3 thirds of 25 mins because of the heat).
After a good team talk form team Captain CSGT ‘H’ Howly, and a few words from LPT ‘Les’ Dennis and LT ‘Taff’ Evans,(2 Former Navy Players) ENDURANCE came back out with all guns blazing. The US team scored the first points in the 2ND Third however the ENDURANCE defence got tighter and with big hits coming in from LCpl ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson and LPT ‘Les’ Dennis the US team found themselves on the back foot, and ENDURANCE scored their first points with Captain CSGT ‘H’ Howly crashing over from 5 metres out. The try was converted by MEM ‘Tanzy’ Lee.
Entering into the last third and once again ENDURANCE came out strong, and early on in the last third LT ‘Taff’ Evans intercepted a pass and ran between the posts leaving himself with an easy kick to convert the 2 points. As the game came to an end, the heat and pace of the game had taken its toll on the ENDURANCE team, leaving the US team to score the final try of the game and bring an end to a open flowing game of rugby.
Overall it was a pleasing start for the ENDURANCE team. The forwards won a fair share of line out ball with MEM ‘Tanzy’ Lee and MNE ‘Doddsy’ Dodds jumping well. The Scrum was solid most of game with CH ‘Damage’ Crichton battling well until he was replaced by SA ‘Julie’ Andrews who made an impact straight away and LCH ‘Bungy’ Williams hooked throughout. The back row were under pressure most game with the Argentines playing an open game, however battled on and made some hard yards from the base of the scrum with No 8 LPT ‘Les’ Dennis combining well with Flankers CSGT ‘H’ Howly and MNE ‘Doddsy’ Dodds.
The back line up started a bit shaky but came into the game more and more as play went on. LT ‘Taff’ Evans ran the back line well, starting at scrum half moving to 10 later on in the game. LT ‘Eggy’ Evans combined well with the centres MEM ‘Eddie’ Fisher and OM ‘Taff’ Hughes. The wingers were left defending most game however held out as long as possible with good tackles coming in from S/LT ‘Mike’ Allison and OM(C) ‘Keabs’ Keable. However one player who stood out was LCPL ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson at full back, who in his first game tackled well and attacked from deep at ever opportunity, he got named man of the match.
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