Exhibition Weekend 1 (16.4.11)

Well it's the moment you've all been waiting for (!), the first exhibition weekend involving the SSRF nations. The games were tough, strewn with emotion with hits bigger then you'll ever see in a domestic league, because the players all care that little bit more. So, without further ado, here are the results (you might want to enlarge):



*Sorry Blakeway, but I didn't get all your stuff fixed in time, I promise they will play the friendlies and I'm sorry, it was entirely my fault

So, a wealth of tight games, the principal one being the contest between Stone and Duwamish. At first, Stone were in the ascendency, completely shutting out the All Greens and scoring two converted tries to put the score at 14-0. They then scored a penalty after a Duwamish error forced a knock on, which pulled Stone even further ahead to 17-0. The teams went in for half time and came out again as if they were completely different sides. Stone didn't seem to be able to put together two passes and Duwamish looked like their normal, formidable selves. The leaky Stone defence allowed in a converted try, a penalty and then, much to the dismay of the huge home crowd, a sea of grey and yellow, another try. It was 17-17. And then, unbelievably, with 4 minutes to go, Duwamish slotted in another penalty, whipping the small All Green contingent into a frenzy, surely they had won it now? Not yet, Stone stormed down the field, urged on by their fans, and with a desperate high tackle stopping a Stone forward from completing a delicate passing manoeuvre for a try, Stone thumped a penalty through the post to bring the scored level. Then, unbelievably, they won the ball almost straight from the kick-off, recovering a Duwamish fumble. With the clock already at 0, a Stone player saw his chance and drop kicked it cleanly and beautifully through the posts, in a similar fashion to Johnny Wilkinson's world cup winning effort (Swing low, sweet chariot). This gave Stone a hard fought, if slightly undeserved, win.

So that just about rounds it up for this weeks eshibition weekend the next will be on May the 28th, a Saturday. So join us then and also next week for the next round of games from the SSLR. Thanks for reading