Grove II v Tadley II

Grove II's gathered on a glorious sunny September afternoon, full of confidence with the return of vastly experienced 1st XV players to bolster the growing youthfulness of the 2s.

Starting the game playing away from the clubhouse grove kicked off and tore into the Tadley pack turning the ball over with great work from Guy Nicholl, some great forward play from Pat wiltshire resulted in quick ball for the backs and some bustling interplay between Ash Lane(playing at 10)and Lee Fitzsimmons took Grove close. Tadley then cleared there lines and attacked up field, indicipline from grove resulted in a penalty for Tadley which was duly kicked 0-3.

Grove kicked off and a high lofted drop out from Jon North was knocked on by Tadley and from the resultant scrum quick ball was fed wide and from the resultant ruck Guy Nicholl scored a great try and was converted by Pat Wiltshire 7 - 3, almost immediately Tadley were back on the score sheet with a converted try 10-7, with Grove falling into the trap of playing outstanding Rugby for 10 mins and then falling asleep(getting their breath)for 10 mins the game was in danger of slipping away, but great battling from the whole grove side saw a great pass to Guy Nicholl who chipped ahead and scored another superb try in the corner which the conversion was missed 12-10, with half time approaching Tadley pinned grove into the 22 but Grove held out with some awesome defense Pat Wiltshire, The Elthams and even old Ady Amies making massive defensive tackles, the backs defended the cane lane end as if their lives depended on it, unfortunately Jon North was blowing and failed to roll away from a tackle and the resultant penalty was put in the corner and Tadley scored from the line out which was unconverted 12 - 15, from the kick off grove again turned over Tadley ball with some massive hits from Stewart Sherwood Tadley killed the ball and grove were awarded a penalty, skipper Jon North asked Fatty Patty if he was ok to kick but the words "skip im knackered fell from his mouth" so Jon North stepped up and slotted the penalty from wide out on the 10 meter line to take the Half time score to 15-15.

The second half was of a similar story great spells from grove and poor spells a substitution of Ady Amies for the Rhino Ryan Gordon(mainly due to his disgraceful behavior the previous week and Ryan is better looking younger,and more talented)Jamie Burns coming on for Ben Gollage Grove shipped two soft tries and the game seemed lost 15-25 under the posts an encouraging team talk proved vital as grove stormed back up the pitch and after 6 or seven fantastic phases Jamie Burns crashed over and converted to make it 22-25 and the final 15 mins Grove couldnt break a resoulute Tadley defense and the game ended 22-25
A performance of great heart and should encourage the players for future games