Swans Match Report
| Canterbury 55 |  |
Staines 12 |
Saturday 19th November 2011
National League 3 London & SE
National League 3 London & SE
Woes for Staines as Canterbury pressure tells
Tom Williams given the team last minute words of encouragement.
Staines travelled to lead leaders Canterbury on Saturday looking to build on there win over Bracknell the previous week.
With a changed team from last week, head coach Greg Knights gave former Scotland U18 scrum half Cameron Meakin his first start for the Swans.
Scrum half Cameron Meakin directing traffic.
On a great day for rugby it was Staines playing down the hill that had the inititive taking the game to the home side. Chris Wells had the chance to take the lead but just missed the uprights and narrowly missed on his second attempt.
Canterbury started to gain control of the game up the slope, were from a driving line out number 8 Win Baars drove hard for the line to score his first try of the day.
Straight from the restart Staines tore into Canterbury with Nathan Plamer again having little respect for his body, won the ball at the ruck. With Meakin driving and spurring on his forwards, the Swans picked and drove into the Home side 22m. Kit Cox was held just short of the line. Again the supporting pack hit and ripped the ball over the line. This time, prop Tom Jones came up with the ball triumphantly to register his first try for the club. Chris Wells adding the 2 extra points to take the score to 7-7 with only 12 mins gone in the match.
Canterbury are top of the league for a reason and that showed again from a driving lineout. Top try scorer No7 Pete Kelly broke away to score under the posts. Full back Martyn Beaumont adding his second conversion of the day.
Things did not look to good for the away team as on the 22 min mark, outside center Juan Del Val broke through a weak defensive line to race away to take the score with the conversion to 21-7.
Staines were not out of the game yet. A break by Peter Freeth in the mid field from some excellent forward work by Tom Cleary at No8 led to wing Lewis Pruce skipping pass a couple of tackles to register his second try in as many weeks. Chris Wells again adding the 2 points.
With the scores at 21-14 Canterbury were looking for the bonus point before half time. Hooker Sam Rodgers obliged, scoring a well-worked try in the corner to take the teams in the break at 26-14.
Prop Tom Jones scoring his first try for the Swans.
The second half started well the home team. When again from a lineout 10m from the Swans goal line, Canterbury drove hard for the line with Prop Steve Goode scoring the second try for the front row.
The game was to be all Canterbury in the second half. Staines defended with some real dogged determination at times and on occasions broke into the opposition 22m zone to cause some problems at the back. With hooker Matt Thomas and lock Duncan Mcdermid carrying the ball strongly with a credible determination challenging the Canterbury defensive system
. The home team were in no mood to sit back on their lead with Full back Beaumont scoring a brace of tries, with his 2nd being of an astounding exhibition of pace.
Staines Coach Greg Knights came away from the game disappointed with not getting the bonus point for all the hard work the team had put in, "especially with a thunderous first half performance".
Shane Brady and Kerry Boyd defending the ruck.
Canterbury 55 (21)
Tries; M Beaumont 2, W Baars 2, S Rodgers, P Kelly, S Goode, P Brown, Jaun Del Val.
Cons; M Beaumont 5
Staines Swans 14 (14)
Tries; T Jones, L Pruce
Cons; C Wells 2
STAINES SWANS were:
J Quirke, L Pruce, P Freeth, C Wells, J Robinson, S Brady, C Meakin, K Cox, M Thomas, T Jones, N Palmer, D Mcdermid, K Boyd, D Edbrooke, T Cleary (capt) R Bachour, J Lee, C West.
The Swans have next week off, were they will be building up to a massive 3 weeks of games. Starting with London Irish Ams at home on the 3rd December 14.30 KO.
