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Haverhill make it six wins out of six

By Jim Morgan at Castle Fields on Monday, 16th November 2009.

Match report on Haverhill Rugby Club's 15-13 win over Broadlands on Saturday in the Eastern Counties League, Division Two.

Haverhill 15
Broadlands 13

In horizontal driving rain, life was never going to be easy for either team. Haverhill were playing into the rain and wind in the first half, and Jake Plumridge used this wind brilliantly with the opening kick, allowing the ball to hang and drop onto the advancing Haverhill players.

Ryan Raffell won the ball from Broadlands and set himself up and was pushed by the Haverhill pack 40 metres to the line, where Paul Bergin picked and charged over, for a Plumridge-converted try to make it 7-0 after only one minute.

The 50 plus crowd, who mostly stayed throughout the atrocious weather, thought that this was going to be another Haverhill rout, but the Norfolk side had other ideas and came back at Haverhill from the restart.

Haverhill allowed the ball to bounce from the restart, which was a big issue throughout the game, and the resultant pressure from Broadlands led to Haverhill giving away a penalty in front of the posts for Broadlands to take the three points for 7-3 on three minutes.

On ten minutes, Haverhill again infringed and the subsequent backchat led the referee, who had a great game, to advance the kick ten metres to the Haverhill 22-metre line, but Broadlands failed to convert the points.

The Haverhill forwards were playing well as a unit, with the back row of Chris Flannery, Raffell and Matt Reynolds causing Broadlands a lot of trouble, but another penalty on 15 minutes was kicked from the Broadlands 22-metre line to five metres from the Haverhill line.

The resulting catch and drive from Broadlands allowed their number eight to get across the line to make the score 7-8.

From the restart, Haverhill got into the Broadlands 22-metre, but a big kick from the Broadlands full back was not attacked by Haverhill, who let it bounce and huge pressure resulted in a penalty for Broadlands, which was luckily missed.

Broadlands continue to pressurise, and a terribly telegraphed move by Haverhill resulted in a clearance kick being charged down and a try in the corner, not converted, on 22 minutes, making the score 7-13.

Haverhill battled into the driving rain, and brought the ball into the pack to control the game, when Flannery broke out, getting to a whisker of the line, but the phase ball was taken to the blind side of the ruck, and Haverhill went out of play just short of the try line.

Haverhill pressurised Broadlands and on 38 minutes won a penalty for Plumridge to make the score 10-13.

The crowd were just saying that 10-13 at half-time would not be a bad score, considering the possession and weather conditions, but Haverhill had other ideas and from the last play of the half, Matt Reynolds broke from the back of the scrum, punching a hole in Broadlands' line, for Raffell to run 20 metres, perfectly laying off the ball to Matt Stephenson who drew the Broadlands last man and then released the ball to Flannery to cross the line out wide for 15-13 at half-time.

At half-time, the continuous rain stopped, but squally showers persisted, and the packed clubhouse buzzed with what Haverhill would do with the strong wind in their favour - the answer to which was, not a lot.

Some clever play by Simon Lester allowed Haverhill to attack the try line, but every time Haverhill got inside the Broadlands 22-metre line, it was lost in some way by knock on or an infringement here or there.

On 25 minutes Lester was replaced by Ricky Harris and Kieron McDonagh came on for Alex Wong, but life for Haverhill did not get any easier by scoring more points to make the job complete.

Haverhill camped inside the Broadlands half for 35 minutes with Broadlands occasionally attempting to break out, but some great tackling by Brodie Patrick and Adam Hunt on the wing kept Broadlands firmly on the back foot.

Finally Broadlands broke out, and the last few minutes were a bit nerve-wracking as Haverhill defended, but gave a penalty away on the far side of the pitch which was signalled as the last play of the game.

The Broadlands fly half decided to attempt the kick to win the game, but in the strong wind, this was something that was near impossible, and proved to be, as Haverhill collected the ball and kicked up field to take the final whistle and the points.

Haverhill Online News

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