Saxons Stutter Against Romsey Rivals

The Saxons hosted Romsey on a very wet October Sunday; the heavens opened during the warm up and the pitch was deluged and very wet for the match. The Saxons and Romsey have enjoyed some very close games over the last two seasons, with the Saxons able to edge them out in the past.

The match opened brightly for the Saxons, with some good early pressure, quick rucking and the ball moving wide into space seeing James Diamond squeeze a true wingers try in beside the corner flag. Romsey responded, with a succession of moves from the base of the ruck in the poor conditions, breaking through and then scoring despite a determined Saxon scramble defence.

When the Saxons went through the phases and Jack Adams got away to score a great try converted by Jamie Stephenson, it looked the Saxons were back in control.

However, the next 20 minutes saw Romsey smash the Saxons up through the middle, with well supported forwards and centres taking the ball forwards with short passes, adapted to the conditions, and making breaks and over-powering the Saxons.

Romsey scored 4 unanswered tries in this manner, before the Saxons rallied, put some phases together through short play and James Taylor broke through to score. There was one particular highlight of the match and that was Lewis Courteney making his debut for the Saxons and tackling Romseys familiar, biggest, strongest and hardest runner at least twice with great technique. Well done Lewis, welcome to the Saxons, great tackling.

The Saxons were disappointed to lose to Romsey but it was always a possibility. The Romsey Head Coach put it well at the end: The Saxons are a great team when the conditions are right and can they can move it wide, but sometimes you need to adapt to the conditions and muscle it through the middle and always be ready to face the teams that do.