TRINITY A XV 63-0 PURLEY JOHN FISHER II

After several failed attempts it was great to finally be able to field an AXV for the first time this season!

For their opening league fixture the AXV welcomed a young Purley John Fisher side to Lime Meadow Avenue. Unfortunately after a early head injury to one of the Purley John Fisher props the game was played with uncontested scrums meaning that Trinity lost the advantage that their more experienced and heavier pack would have surely given them! However Trinity still managed to stamp their early dominance on the game and were rewarded with their first try of the match when inside centre Aaron, on loan from Old Cats for the day, darted through a large gap in the PJF defence to score under the post! Fellow loanee and centre partner Tom from Old Cats added the extra two points from the tee.

PJF then lost another player to injury when Bertie, on loan to PJF from Trinity who had him on loan for the day from Old Cats, picked up a knee injury and was struggling to walk! Let’s hope there were no fires in Godstone that evening as he was rushing off to his fireman shift straight after the game! Due to the AV “game on” regulations where one team cannot play with more than one player extra than the opposition Trinity had to sacrifice a player to balance up the numbers!

Nick Hamilton was next to depart as instead of jumping on the ball when it fell to his feet after throwing in at the lineout he decided to go full Ronaldo mode and try to dribble the ball up the pitch! His first touch was great, his second possibly better however after the third the hamstring decided enough was enough and that was the end of Hamilton’s run as well as his game!

Trinity continued to dominate the game but it took another 20 minutes from their opening try before they added their second! Prop Russell Jones took a crash ball from a penalty close to the PJF line, the ball was then recycled and passed out wide to Laurence Oliver who ignored his son Cian on his outside, who was making his senior club debut, to instead step his man and dive over the line himself.

Trinity were now in full flow with Mark Macaskill at No 8 proving a constant threat in open play. With it taking two or sometimes even three men to stop him this was leaving gaps out wide. As a result Aaron strolled in for his second try of the match in the corner. This with shortly followed by Trinity’s 4 try which was scored in the exact same spot by Tom following a quickly taken pass to him by scrum half David Stanton from a free kick.

Trinity’s fifth and final score of the half came from a well worked move in the backs with fly half Dave Bouchard pulling the strings and sending Tom through for an “Ash Splash” style finish under the posts!

Trinity did not need a boost as they were already fully in their stride and were starting to run riot however a boost they got with the late arrival of Massimo Costa! It did not take long before Costa was ripping the PJF back line apart and following some good work at the breakdown by flanker, Jon Eynon, a charge by Costa from his own half enabled him to feed Callum Plumb on the wing. Plumb still had plenty of his own work to do to beat his man and run in from the 22 for a super try!

Costa was soon tearing through the PJF backline again as he came bursting down the pitch from deep at fullback to take a well-timed pass in between both centres before wrong footing the PJF fullback and dotting down under the post. For a change the score was not in the corner so Tom was able to added a further 2 points from the boot.

As the try was being scored there was an incident off of the ball when a PJF player overreacted but Tom Caplin raced in to pull the PJF player off of Costa. A true captain and proves that not all heroes wear capes!

Costa was on fire the PJF defence were terrified every time he got the ball and his next try was a fairly easy try in the end as PJF allowed him to ghost through under the post for a simple but effective score! Tom collapsed in the build-up and departed the pitch with cramp so Aaron stepped up to kick the additional 2 points.

Cian Oliver was growing frustrated on his wing so decided if the ball isn’t coming to him, he was going looking for it! This resulted in Cian picking the ball up at the back of the ruck from the foot of the post and scoring a well deserved debut try! Arron added the 4^th conversion of the game.

Unfortunately the LMA snipper was then back in action as Macaskill made a trade mark break before having to depart the pitch with a similar hamstring injury to Hamilton. At least Macaskill was trying to play rugby and not football when it happened! Tom recovered from his cramp to rejoin the field.

With the lack of contested scrums Matt Austin and Ben Donovan had extra firepower in their bellies and were making decent yards every time they got the ball. It was from an Austin run that he found on loan Old Cat Toby who made it to the edge of the PJF 22 before being tackled however as he hit the deck he popped the ball up to the onrushing Stanton who just about managed to make it to the white line by the skin of his teeth for a great team try!

Phil Mamode was about to join the game but with the shear excitement of coming on to the pitch he managed to put his foot through his boot so had to remain a spectator although he did manage to get his steps in for the day by bringing the kicking tee on for 11 wonderful occasions!

Trinity, 11^th and final try of the game went to Cian who decided scoring in the corner would have been too boring so stepped a couple of extra players for the fun of it to cut inside and score next to the post!

For some reason one of the PJF players then said something to upset the ref and following a yellow card the PJF captain called it a day and the game was cut short by 8 minutes with the AXV winning 63-0!

Is great to have the A-Team back!

Match report cobbled together by Russell Jones.

TRIBE ADVISORY PLAYER OF THE MATCH: MASSIMO COSTA