Southwold Rugby Match reports

Southwold 1st XV v Crusaders 1st XV
Score:  Southwold 43 – Crusaders 5

Revitalised men of Fortress Southwold repel Crusaders
After a two-week break from league action, a re-energised Southwold RFC 1st XV maintained their unbeaten home record by comprehensively dispatching the Crusaders with an exciting display of running rugby. Ubiquitous Open-Side Flanker, Jonny Stephenson tormented the visitors at the breakdown snaffling numerous turnovers and this plentiful supply of possession was gratefully received by the home team’s Flyhalf, Chris Withey who duly distributed the ball with surgical precision, repeatedly unleashing the rampaging Southwold three-quarters upon the visitors.

Flanker Stephenson bagged an early brace of tries, before his, only slightly faster brother Frank, on the right wing, thrust himself into the fray, demonstrating impressive pace and skill in scoring through an excellently timed interception. The home team ‘try-fest’ was continued by the ever-present and dynamic Duncan Hume (who also slotted 4 conversions), and the powerful (left) wing-man Ben Balls, who grabbed a pair, one each side of the half time break.  Most of the action took place in the first half where the Crusaders had very little to offer in the way of resistance to the impressive Southwold attack.

A single, unconverted try was all that they could muster in a short lived, wind-assisted, second-half reveille, before Frank Stephenson combined agility with speed to dart through and then out flank the fading opposition defences for his second and the final score of the afternoon.

The home side finished the match with a 4-try bonus point with a score line of 43 – 5.

Southwold U15s narrowly beat Diss 17-12
Tries: Olly Carlstroem, Darius Mullen and Connor Gooch.
Conversions: Connor Gooch 1

Southwold forwards again winning ball well and the backs attacking at pace, this is how to play rugby. Fine tackling from Diss ensured scoring was limited in the first half. The game swept from left to right and Wold seemed to create the overlap, but indecision followed. A fine run from Olly saw him driven over to score for the first unconverted try.

Diss attacked but Wold infringed repeatedly and unfortunately their hooker then ‘took one for the team’ as he was deemed to infringe and was sin binned. With a man down Diss powered their way through the defence and scored a fine converted try.

The game was fairly even for the first stages of the second half, Southwold was getting quick ball allowing the centre partnership to run at their opposite players. They then re-took the lead after some fine work down the left, and Callum Anthony fed Darius down the blindside who beat three defenders to score an unconverted try.

Diss came right back at Southwold, yet more infringements saw another penalty awarded, and from a quick tap the Diss scored another try to take the lead again. But good forward play from the pack allowed the ball to be used quickly at the back of the scrum. Some fine passing through the players led to Connor Gooch breaking his tackle and then side stepping to score under the posts for a self converted try. With only minutes to go, Southwold defended with gusto until the final whistle.

Man of the match: Olly Carlstroem
Iron Man: Jake Taylor

Southwold U14s beat Diss 38-5
Tries: Billy Burgess 1, Joe McKay 1, Tom Collis 1, Christian Trash 1, Jon Utting 1, Josh Wallis1
Conversions: Ben Felton 4.

Another extremely encouraging performance from the boys. Despite drifting along to our home ground a good 30 minutes after the opposition and without any of our front row and with only 14 players (again), we started the game surprisingly switched-on. It isn’t easy to play in to the wind at Southwold, especially when it’s whipping in off the sea. Kicking for position isn’t an option, so we needed to rely on running rugby. Fortunately that’s what we’re best at. We were swift to distribute the ball and our off-loads and passing were sublime and kept on creating gaps and overlaps. The tries followed. Despite some big lads on the Diss team, our defence was solid. Our back row nailed anyone creeping around the fringes and our three-quarters made some crunching tackles. Indeed Diss never looked like breaking our line and the only time they did was from an interception.

Every single Southwold player performed well, so to single out individuals would be wrong. The six try scorers were all deserving but all of them benefited from quick and plentiful ball. Let’s hope we can build on our first three matches this season as we start our Suffolk Plate campaign – especially as we have to beat both Bury and Woodbridge in our group to get to the final. We would then need to beat (probably) Stowmarket in the final to get in to the Trophy competition – where arguably we belong.

A final comment on the conversions. Four kicks from six on such a windy day is impressive at any level.

Southwold Rugby Club

www.southwoldrfc.co.uk