BARFC 2nds 73, Imperial 5 (10/10/15)

Hold on tight….. It’s a George Sluman special!!!

If I were a betting man, I would have put money on the encounter between 1st placed Bridgwater 2s and 3rd placed Imperial being a tight affair. Instead, Bridgwater produced their best performance of the season so far and comfortably beat the visitors to College Way by a margin of 68 points. With John Hill called upon by the first team, Tom Denovan came off the bench to start at full back. Bridgwater welcomed back Nick Spellissy into the fold after he recovered from the back injury he picked up against North Petherton in the first game of the season and also gave a debut to Doug Caddick.

Bridgwater kicked off and immediately piled on the pressure to the Imperial side. Their eagerness to go forward in defence was rewarded when Imperial infringed at the ruck in an attempt get the ball back quickly and relieve the pressure. 30 metres out and in front of the posts, Denovan (who had an indifferent day with the boot) stepped up and confidently slotted over the first points of the game 3-0.

Bridgwater, happy to be in front and to take the early lead, looked to build again off of the kick off. Rob Gurnett scored the first of a hat trick when the ball was sent wide. He breezed around the outside of his opposite man before cutting back inside the fullback and casually making his way under the posts. Denovan scored his second kick of the afternoon after slotting the straight forward conversion, 10-0.

Shortly after, Gurnett scored his second inside the first 10 minutes. A well worked backs move saw Jay Owens fix both Imperial centres. The ball was shipped out to Gurnett behind Owens and in a similar fashion to the first, he had pace to spare as he cruised over the line to score near the posts. The start of Denovan’s shaky place kicking performance was about to begin. He missed the relatively simple conversion, 15-0.

With the game in danger of becoming the Rob Gurnett show, some of Bridgwater’s other players stepped in. With a ruck out on one touch line, Franklin fed a forward pod. George Sluman spotted a mismatch and, stepping around an Imperial prop, he set off up the field. Rounding another attempted tackle, winger and fullback both committed themselves to the tackle allowing Sluman to return the ball to its original sender. Franklin had been in support from the off and was more than happy to take the ball back and scamper in from 20 metres out to score under the posts with a number of chasers hot on his heels. Denovans successful conversion took the score to 22-0.

Bridgwater earned themselves a four try bonus point courtesy of Ryan Barnett’s neck. Another good backs move saw Barnett with a bit of space down the wing and in a panic to stop the attack, the Imperial winger who was desperately tracking back tackled Barnett around his neck and into touch. The referee didn’t need a TMO to make the decision for him and instantly awarded a penalty try and sent the Imperial winger to the naughty step for 10 minutes. Denovan again slotted the easy conversion to extend Bridgwater’s lead to 29-0.

Next on the score sheet was Sluman who bundled his way over the line in almost the reverse of Franklin’s earlier try. Another good run from Barnett down his wing gave Franklin an opportunity to get over the line but some great tackling from Imperial denied the young scrum half. However, despite being on the receiving end of a rather hefty tackle, Franklin got his arms free and popped it up to Sluman who had minimal work to do from three yards out. The conversion, from just outside the post, was missed by Denovan giving Bridgwater a 34-0 lead 30 minutes into the game.

With the backs tearing it up in the open, Owens yet again drew in several defenders with a dummy line. Collings went behind to Gurnett who fed the ball to Denovan, who was entering the line outside the centres. With 50 metres of open field in front of him, Denovan put the pedal to the metal. Not needing his supporting cast of Dan Lang and Gurnett, Denovan beat both the winger and his opposite man to score wide in the corner. Unfortunately he couldn’t convert his own try taking Bridgwater’s tally for the first half to 39-0.

A minor blemish in Bridgwater’s game occurred when Imperial took advantage of some lackadaisical defensive organisation. In what was possibly a sign of complacency after such a good half, Bridgwater failed to read the Imperial attacking threat. Imperial decided to work the big blind side, noticing that Bridgwater had stacked their defence on the larger open side. A strong run from Imperial’s number 8 ended with a try half way between the posts and the touchline. The resulting conversion was missed but the try had already ruined the cosmetics of the scoreboard from Bridgwater’s point of view, 39-5.

At the half time interval, debutant Caddick replaced Franklin at scrum half and Spellissy replaced Matt Ranson at number 8. The two replacements made an immediate impact and an early second half scrum inside Bridgwater’s own half resulted in their 7th try of the game. Caddick got the scrum going with the put in and Spellissy broke from the back. His run took him through and past a number of would-be tacklers until he offloaded back to Caddick on the 22 metre line. Caddick won the foot race with a desperate defender and slid in under the posts. Denovan had a real clanger and missed the kick which was directly in front of the post, 44-5.

Bridgwater were penalised in an attempt to get over the line after the referee judged them to have infringed in the ruck before they went over. Imperial looked to clear their lines and relieve the pressure but botched the kick. Spellissy gathered well out on the wing and carried forwards once more. After beating a defender or two and drawing another, he popped outside to Barnett who managed to make his way over the line without being high tackled this time. He headed for the posts once he was over the line which aided Denovan in converting the try, 51-5.

Gurnett then struck again to bring up his hat trick. In another sweeping backs move, a number of Imperial defenders were sucked and Gurnett busted through the attempted tackle of his opposite man. He then had the gas to beat the fullback to the line. Fortunately it was close enough for Denovan to knock the extras over, 58-5.

During yet another Bridgwater attack, the ball was spilt to the floor. A number of fly hacks from Doug Page-Symonds and Gary Saunders ensued. The ball ricocheted around the legs of Bridgwater and Imperial players alike before finally sneaking through where Saunders the opportunist pounced/dropped first. He plotted down in the corner making Denovan’s job a little harder than he wanted. Unfortunately the kick was on target but didn’t quite have the legs, 63-5.

Sluman caught the ball off the kick off and with the help of some naughty lines from Gavin Knight, found his way in between the first wave of kick chasers. He stepped past the second wave and offloaded to the supporting players. To no one’s surprise it was Nick Spellissy on hand and he surged forward once more. Unfortunately he was tracked down by the Imperial backs. Further good support play from Joe Stradling meant the ball was kept alive but he was finally brought down 5 metres out. Caddick quickly recycled to Collings who waltzed over just outside the posts. Denovan was again unsuccessful, 68-5.

Spellissy had a busy half on his return from injury and was involved again in the build up to Stradling’s try. After another bulldozing carry that saw him break a number of tackles he managed to get the ball to Stradling who scored the final points of the game as his try was unconverted by Denovan.

An outstanding performance from Bridgwater led to the dismantling of the Imperial side. The team will however be annoyed that there is no game scheduled for the upcoming weekend so they must try and keep hold of this momentum in training alone until their home encounter against Castle Cary on the 24th October. They will of course be out in force to cheer on the first team in the top of their table clash with Newent.

Team: Denovan, Barnett, Gurnett, Owens, Lang, Collings, Franklin; Saunders, Nobili, Shaw, Page-Symonds, Stradling, Windsor, Sluman (Capt), Ranson
Reps: (All Used) Knight, Spellissy, Caddick
Tries: Gurnett (3), Franklin, Penalty, Sluman, Denovan, Caddick, Barnett, Saunders, Collings, Stradling
Cons: Denovan (5)
Pens: Denovan

Category: 2nd Previews / Reports -XV, 2nd XV News