Sat 19 Oct 2024
THURSTON RANGERS RUFC vs IPSWICH YM RUFC First XV Match Report
19th October 2024
Some decent travelling support for the YM’s fixture against Thurston on a warm and sunny afternoon that belied the heavy rain that had occurred throughout the morning. It had been a couple of seasons since YM had fixtures with Thurston but a warm welcome was received as usual for those travelling supporters for a game that was played in a competitive but good spirit throughout.
The Thurston pack applied pressure in the early exchanges but a loose pass in their midfield allowed Ipswich YM wing, Ed Parkin, to intercept the ball but knock it on in the process which it quickly became clear had not been spotted by the referee. Parkin gathered the ball at the second attempt and surged free to score in the corner but YM head coach, Jim Clarke, sportingly alerted the referee to her oversight, the try scrubbed and a Thurston scrum being the correct result. Unfortunately, Parkin left the field injured and later x-rays showed why – his collarbone broken in two places and a lengthy recovery and rehabilitation period lay ahead.
YM started to gain a degree of control and line-speed in midfield defence again led to a knock-on by Thurston with the advantage quickly seized upon by George Hendry who chipped the ball into space which was collected by Barny Horsfield to score YM’s first official try on 12 minutes. Horsfield converted the try for YM to establish an early 0-7 lead.
With Thurston’s pack up for a contest and a game plan to get ball to their dangerous centre, Robert Rigby, running straight and from deep the YM team had to be alert. The YM pack were up for the challenge with Tyler Baumguertal and Ben Hockley, in particular, leading by example with Adam Sawyer and Andy Gostling also prominent. Wing forwards Jake Goodwin and Ali Margetts were also providing a solid defensive effort and pressure that repeatedly drew knock-ons from the opposition. From the resulting scrums, the YM pack started to turn that defence into attack with Goodwin and Margetts to the fore and allowing scrum-half, Toby Ruffles, to score on the blind side in the corner. Horsfield missed the tricky conversion as YM extended their lead 0-12 on 20 minutes.
Renewed efforts from Thurston drew a series of penalties from YM as the home side maintained possession and generated momentum resulting in a try for their forwards on 26 minutes. The try was converted to close the score gap to 7-12.
This triggered a strong response from the YM who quickly pinned Thurston back in their own half from the restart. Winning a line-out the YM then controlled the ball and the forwards moved it towards the try line allowing Gostling to emerge with the ball after scoring the third try for YM in the corner. The difficult conversion was successfully slotted through the posts by Horsfield for the YM to build their lead 7-19.
With half-time approaching, YM applied consistent pressure and moving the ball through the back line enabled Horsfield to run in another try and touch the ball down near the posts to ensure an easier conversion kick which hes duly accepted for a half-time score and lead for the YM of 7-26.
YM extended their lead quickly in the second half with outside centre, Corey Parfitt, latching onto the ball after another good move through all of the backs enabling him to score under the posts to make the conversion a formality and the score 7-33.
An extended second half was largely equally contested thereafter with YM largely adopting secure and effective defensive duties from players numbered 1 to 15 – including replacements. But eventually, the Thurston attack had its deserved moments with powerful line breaks by Rigby to set up two unconverted tries in the final throes of the game to take the final score Thurston Rangers 17 vs Ipswich YM 33.
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