City 1s Sink League Hopefuls Grove

With the wind and sun to their backs City needed to have a good lead in the first half and started brightly. There was little between the sides and there was an exchange of penalty kicks for the first 40 minutes of the game.

Within 10 minutes gone Darren Brodick suffered an injury to his back and valiantly continued for 15 minutes before having to be replaced. This caused an adjustment to the pack with Iain Talbot coming into the back row.

Phil Powell took the opportunities to put City into the lead by converting the first 3 penalty kicks. This gave City a buffer for the remainder of the first half. Powell also controlled the game well from fly half placing the Grove back 3 under regular pressure. Grove’s kicker didn’t have a good day and by half time City were up 9 points to 3.

From the start of the second half Milton Keynes dominated the play but failed to add to their score. Grove came back with some good rucking and worked their way towards the MK try line and forced their way over for a try. With the conversion missed City remained in the lead by a single point at 8-9. Soon after Grove were awarded a penalty which was converted giving them a lead of 11 – 9.

City were soon back in the Grove half. Andy Champ made a good break, cutting inside to the forwards. The ball was re-cycled to Dan Pearson who popped a ball to Dave Matthews who made it over the line. The conversion was missed resulting in a score of 11 – 14.

MK again took control and were soon in Grove’s half with a number of rucks, 10 metres from the line, the ball was spun out to the backs, only for No 8 Stuart Tomkinson to cut through the centres and force his way over the try line. With the successful conversion the score was now 21 – 11.

From the kick off Phil Powell made a good break from the 22 metre line but in the process pulled a ham string and was replaced by Richard Cowan.

With just a few minutes remaining Grove were awarded a penalty and completed the scoring with the final result being 14 – 21. This was a much improved performance on last week and takes City to third in the league. The next match is in 2 weeks time, at home against Windsor which is always a close game.