Courageous Comeback Victory for the Senior XV
Verulamians 33 vs 24 Kilburn Cosmos
Cotlandswick witnessed the proverbial game of two halves, as a keen and well drilled Kilburn Cosmos side travelled to Vee’s for the second league game of the season.
With the wind at their backs in the first half, Kilburn started strongly and caught Vee’s napping within 2 mins, as their 10 made a clean break from his own half and despite last ditch defence, Cosmos forced their way over for a converted score.
Vee’s struggled to get into the game and were on the back foot as Cosmos played to their strengths, mixing hard forward play with varied kicking.
In one of their rare forays into Kilburn’s half, Vee’s pack kept the ball tight, patiently probed for weakness and No.8 Tom Spratt forced his way over. Waters converted. Kilburn continued to punish Vees at the breakdown and turned the ball over a number of times or forced holding penalties. Lapses in concentration led to two further tries for Kilburn, one being converted. It could have been worse but for two crunching last ditch tackles from Waters at fullback.
Another seminal moment was a massive hit by Josh Lawrence on the visitors huge second row who never looked the same player for the rest of the match. Vee’s needed the half time whistle but Cosmos managed to form a tight maul and forced their way over for a half time lead of 24-7.
Despite the score, the resilience and belief that Coach Chris Monaghan has instilled in the squad was evident in the half time team talk.
With the wind and slope Vee’s gave a master class in how to change a game on its head. Within 2 mins Captain Callum Porter had forced his way over from short distance after strong approach play. Waters converted and was called on again to slot a conversion after a slick backs move put winger Jake Lawrence into space and after a kick and chase, he pounced on a defensive error and crossed under the sticks.
The belief was evident in all of the squad as Vee’s started winning the collisions, playing to the strengths of their strong ball carriers and pinned the opponents back with accurate kicking.
As Vee’s superior fitness started to show, the excited crowd were treated to two sublime moments of play from scrum half Tom Shenton. Both were pretty similar and involved breaks down the blind side. On each occasion the elusive 9 broke the line, evaded multiple offenders and sped over. The boy can step!!!!
Even a yellow card for Waters for a high tackle with 10 mins to go couldn’t dent Vee’s confidence, born out by a scrum towards the end of the game where the pack pushed their opponents 15 metres back towards their line, much to the enjoyment of the vocal home support.
Still lots to work on but an outstanding second half performance by a team that is getting better by the week and developing the self belief needed to compete with the better teams in the leagues.
Man of the Match went to Tom Shenton but a huge shout out to the whole squad for a great fight back.
Written by Simon French
