Sat 17 Sep 2022
WPRFC v Anselmians
17th September 2022 – Park lose at home
WPRFC 17 – 50 Anselmians
With the new season well underway, this week Park welcomed Anselmians to Stade de Burrows Hill who were also promoted last season as the league winners. It was always going to be a tough encounter but with a number of injuries and unavailability it was a reshuffled Park side that stepped on the field on a sunny September day.
Park started strongly with some great ball retention and running great lines to get over the gain line and were awarded a penalty on 8 minutes for Anselmians handling in the ruck. The resulting line out in the Anselmians 22 was won by Park and with great hands in the back line saw Alex Burrage score a try in the corner which was unconverted (5-0). Anselmians struck back to level up the scores with an unconverted try off a driving maul following a penalty in the Park 22 (5-5) on 15 minutes.
Anselmians started to dominate the game and Park could not get a foothold in the game with Anselmians having the lions share of the possession and territory and scored a further three tries to extend their lead (5-24). Park continued to work hard and were rewarded with a penalty which we kicked to touch and won the lineout and Benny Elliot chipped over and picked up his own kick to score a converted try under the posts (12-22). The half finished with a further score from Anselmians to extend their lead (12-31).
Half time score 12 - 31
The second half started with Anselmians putting the pressure on, but Park worked hard in defence to keep them out by holding them up over the line on two occasions. Park was then reduced to 14 when Andrew Evans was yellow carded on 48 minutes which put us under further pressure. Anselmians capitalised on this, and some Park missed tackles by scoring a couple of tries on 53 and 60 minutes to extend their lead (12-43).
Park worked hard with some great drives to get some territory and on 66 minutes a Benny Elliot cross field kick was taken by Charlie Hyde to score a well worked try in the corner (17-43). Unfortunately, Anselmians had the last points of the game with a converted try on 72 minutes (17-50).
It was a great team effort with all players working hard for the whole 80 minutes against a strong Anselmians team with some glimpses of what we are capable of, but we were not quite good enough on the day.
Final score WPRFC 17 – 50 Anselmians
Team: Chris Twigg, Alex Burrage, James Wood, Will Morrillo, Charlie Hyde, Benny Elliot, Cameron Flanagan, Jack England, Ben Thorn, James Johnson, Gary Dykes, Jake Cornwell, Bruce McGrogan, Andrew Evans, Shaun Underdown (Captain), Mike Eaves, Dave Cross and Mat Cross
