1st XV succumb to first loss of the season

Bank Lane 31 vs 15 Verulamians

The first game of 2023 for the Vee’s 1s saw them travel to Bank Lane, playing at their old ground the Bank of England Sports Centre. Vee’s started the game strongly with big carries and ill discipline from Bank Lane pushing Vee’s up the pitch. After a yellow card for Bank Lane, Josh Lawrence bumped off defenders and crashed over for the first score of the game after receiving the ball 20 metres out from a tapped penalty. Harry Mack converted to make the score 0 - 7 to the Vee’s.

After some stoic defending from the Vee’s, with plenty of strong tackling and forced turnovers, Bank Lane eventually managed to find a way over the line out wide. The conversion was missed to leave the score 5 - 7.

Vee’s regained some momentum to march up the field and earn a penalty in front of the posts around 20 metres out, converted by Tom Shenton to take the score to 5 - 10. Shortly before half-time, Bank Lane took advantage of the fatiguing Vee’s defence to score another try wide, converting it to take the score to 12 - 10 at half-time.

The second half continued in a similar vein, with Bank effectively shutting the door to the Vee’s attack, whilst themselves dominating possession and taking advantage of the tiring Vee’s defence to score a brace of tries out wide, making the score 24 - 10 in spite of a second Bank Lane yellow card, this time for repeat dissent.

Lawrence Senior again gave the visitors a glimmer of hope with another trademark dominant carry to take him over the line, however hard the Bank defence tried to stop him. With the conversion missed, this left the score 24 - 15 with around 10 minutes to go. This glimmer of hope was short lived however as Bank Lane capably saw out the rest of the match, scoring a final try to leave the full time score 31 - 10.

Overall a deserved win for a strong Bank Lane outfit, with some notable performances from the Vees coming from the industrious Jack Liversidge at flanker, the hard hitting Dan Monaghan, a much anticipated return to action for impactful centre Andre Fourie, Hugo Robinson continuing his fine form of exceptional sideline commentary, and of course the ever powerful brace scorer Josh Lawrence.

The first loss of the season will be a bitter pill to swallow for Vee’s, but with encouraging passages to take inspiration from and plenty of hard work at training to come this week, they will be hopeful for a better performance at home to league leaders Brunel University this coming Saturday in what promises to be a monumental game in the context of the league.

Written by Tom Shenton