Hackney RFC VS Old Tottonians
Hackney RFC: 22
Old Tottonians RFC: 7
Hackney RFC’s winning way continued with a comfortable win against an Old Tottonians XV. Totts play in the league above Hackney and meetings will hopefully become a regular occurrence next season if the Griffins are successful in gaining promotion. Hackney looked to put out a strong side for this ‘Friendly’ match to gauge how well we would cope next season and gave flanker Dom Beno and winger Taku their first starts in Griffin colours.
Hackney started brightly with James Wilson opening the scoring, rounding off a blindside move that exposed the Totts defence in the first five minutes of the game. Good link up play from No.8 Morgan Whitlock and scrum half Cormac Fanning created the space for Wilson to finish in the corner. Pete Greives missed the conversion and then had to be carried off shortly afterwards after twisting his ankle badly.
The Tott’s forwards had a big size advantage over the Griffins pack but they could not compete with the pace of Hackney’s backline. As a result, Hackney looked to spin the ball out wide whenever possible and avoid going toe to toe with their strong pack. Hackney scored two further tries in the first half in a simlar fashion to the first; exploiting defensive weakness down the blindside and then making good use of the overlap to score – Nico Adriaso and Matt Spencer the beneficiaries.
Old Totts were guilty of several infringements at the ruck and seemed not to learn from their mistakes as they consistently handled on the floor. Eventually in the second half the referee lost his patience with them and sent the guilty player to the sin-bin. However, Hackney could not take advantage of the numerical advantage and had to wait until midway through the second half with Shaun Collins steaming on to an inch perfect pass from James Wilson to score.
Old Totts were able to grab a consolation try late on but by this point the match was over as a contest. Several members of the Edmonton side had perhaps underestimated the Hackney side and came to Springfield expecting an easy win. Tempers flared at the end of the match which saw another Totts player sin binned and some unnecessary use of the boot from their tighthead prop. None of that bothered Hackney though whose 100% home record remains intact. Next weeks match is away against Essex side Loughton
Coach Neil Schofield said “Hopefully, we are one win away from promotion. If we can play our attacking style of rugby and avoid getting drawn into battles against opposition who want to keep the ball in their forwards then we will do well in the league above next season”
Hackney Griffins: J Williams, D Bates, M Clemens-Lary, J Young, O Hart, D Beno, M Whitlock, M Spencer, C Fanning, P Grieves, T Aku, T Wright, S Collins, J Wilson, J Davies,
Reserves: N Andriaso, S Ferguson
Hackney Vs Old Tottonians
Monday, 17 March 2008
