Issue 153

Rugby Firsts cruise to victory

26th February 2007

Swansea 53-10 Imperial Medics

Swansea rounded off their home league fixtures in style against Imperial Medics, running in seven tries in a one-sided affair. It was just the tonic needed after last week's defeat by rivals St Mary's. Medics put pressure on us early on and scored a penalty for offside, but the next seventy minutes belonged to Swansea. Centre Luke Khan got the ball rolling after fifteen minutes, scoring after a good break from Neil Higgins. Adam Fotherington converted to give us a 10-3 lead. Five minutes after the re-start, Richard Watkins touched down under the posts with a thirty yard burst of past, giving Fotherington an easy conversion.

Swansea continued to dominate up to half time, with Medics showing the strain they were under by conceding penalties for holding on and for constantly back-chatting the referee. Daniel West was set up for a try by a good run by Peter Hatch and a cross-field kick by Higgins. Fotherington again converted, and also added a penalty after a Medics player held onto the ball on the ground.

At half time club captain James Kerr gave his traditional motivational talk, but it did not seem to sink in as both players made basic errors early in the second half like dropped passes. Medics almost capitalised on this by nearly scoring in the corner.

After 60 minutes the game began to follow the pattern of the first half again, as neat interplay by Swansea players allowed scrum-half Tom Unwin to score. Just minutes later, Watkins made a good break before passing, and the ball exchanged hands several times before James Wheeler scored. This was also soon followed up by Robert Evans crossing in the corner, leaving a difficult conversion for Fotherington, who was unable to succeed. Higgins rounded off Swansea's easy afternoon after a good kick through by Wheeler with a few minutes left. But Medics managed to get a try of their own after several drives towards our line. The conversion meant the final score was 53-10.

The result means Swansea can look forward to next week's final match at Cardiff Medics with confidence, especially as we beat them in our last match in January. Then is the Varsity match with Cardiff on April 25th, where we try to regain the Shield from Cardiff following last year's defeat, so make sure you get tickets and give the boys support.

Jim Lovering