St Mary’s Old Boys 11pts
Drybrook 48pts
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Drybrook crept a little closer to top spot with this well earned bonus point victory over a hard pressed St Mary’s outfit. Drybrook were made to defend a tremendous onslaught from St Marys but held out and began to turn the tide.
A penalty and subsequent line out were followed by a superb driving maul and led to a scrum from which Drybrook number nine Carl Moore got a pushover try which Mitch Baldwin converted.
Soon after the restart, Drybrook were penalized for hands in the ruck which allowed
St Marys to close the gap.
Drybrook won the ball from the kick off and it was recycled by the forwards and offloaded to Simon Rugman who made a superb thirty metre break to score under the posts and Baldwin again converted.
Drybrook were then penalized for pushing too early at the scrum and St Marys, with an excellent kick pulled back three points.
A period of scrappy, error strewn, play from both sides followed but Drybrook eventually steadied the ship and after going through several phases, with good hands from both forwards and backs, Marcus Cowles crashed over wide out for another try.
This was followed by an excellent conversion from Mitch Baldwin and four minutes later, good hands followed a line out and winger Mitch Baldwin finished strongly to score the bonus point try in the corner.
Drybrook continued to dominate the set pieces and having been awarded a penalty at the line out, a tap and go allowed the three quarters to spin the ball and put Mitch Baldwin over.
Half Time
St Mary’s Old Boys 6pts
Drybrook 31pts
At the break St Marys had a second prop leave the field injured with the result that the remainder of the game was played with uncontested scrums, a severe handicap for Drybrook who were well in the ascendancy.
Seven minutes into the half, Drybrook centre, Luke Fisher, rounded off a cracking break with a kick and chase, following up to score wide out.
Five minutes later, another break by scrum half Carl Moore took the ball to the goal line where a perfect offload put Marcus Cowles in for his second try.
Following this, Drybrook failed to respond to a St Marys’ penalty and a try was conceded.
Drybrook then kicked off long and set up a rolling maul from which prop forward Craig Clarke scored.
The remainder of the game fizzled out as a spectacle with Drybrook unable to add to their earlier scores.
Drybrook team; Mitch Baldwin, Sam Peaper, Simon Rugman(capt), Luke Fisher, Rorie Day, Ben Large, Carl Moore, Craig Clarke, Mitch Renton, Nick Ovens, Marcus Cowles, Rich Cottrell, Neil Morgan, Dan Price, Lee Ward.
Substitutes; Chris Rawlings, Joe Tingle, John Baynham.
