January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Mariners' spirit shows through with wins
In ideal conditions down at the diminutive BAA field, Mariners Spirit day kicked off with a 2nd XV game which featured a wonderful blend of gnarly veterans and effervescent youth. The Rest side in particular had a large contingent of the under 18 "young byes" out in force.
Mariners dominated up front early and took an early lead with two tries from Pat Toppley, another from former national team prop Jason Scott and one from Rob Hunter just before the half. Keith Hodgkin drop kicked 3 out of the 4 conversions to give his side a presumably insurmountable half time lead of 24-0. The second half saw a startling fight back by the Rest whose younger legs and quicker pace closed the gap to 24-21 with tries from Matt Irvin, Luke Burgess and Dave Stephenson.
What made the fight back more intriguing was that the Rest had two of their forwards sinned for repeatedly infringing at the breakdown but instead of wilting, the Rest were galvanized by their apparent handicap and turned the game on its head. A collective sigh of relief was heard down the Mariners' side line when speedster Sinisha Ercea scored the final Mariners unconverted try to finish the game off at 29-21.
Women
Mariners 4, Rest 3
After that auspicious start it was the turn of the fairer sex to show off their rugby skills. The lady Mariners have not had the most successful of starts to their season and were still in search of their first win.
The game not only saw the sad departure of Maria Green-Smythe who was playing her final game before leaving the island but also it was the debut of Mariners coach Dave Martin who has been working wonders with his charges.
In a highly spirited and cleanly contested game, marred only by field marking confusion the girls put on a fine display of touch rugby.
The Rest got two early scores from Sue Rebello but the girls in green had an outstanding performance from captain Amy Wolfinger who touched down three times to give them a 3-2 half time lead.
The second half saw rookie Jamie Murdoch cross over to extend Mariners' lead to 4-2. The Rest fought to the end and got a late consolation try from Dhakshani Kekeri to close the gap to 4-3 but the Mariners ladies held on to the end to secure their first win of the season.
First XV
Mariners 23, Rest 14
The main event saw a motivated Mariner 1st XV take on a hodge podge Rest side.
Just before the break a fine individual break by full back Dave Porter saw him slip past a flat footed Luke Millward. Porter drew the cover and a nice inside pass released winger Greg Garside from just inside the half to scamper in untouched for a converted try.
The green forwards put together a series of pick and drive rucks which drove deep into the Rest half. More importantly it sucked in the defence and allowed Richard Holden to give a beautifully weighted pop to the hard charging Kris Furbert. Furbert made no mistake and sprinted in for a converted try on the stroke of half time.
The second half saw both sides continue to make wrong options and force needless passes in the claustrophobic environs of BAA field. However with the wind at their back, it was Mariners who took the ascendancy. A deft probing kick by Mariners fullback Allun Thomas put the Rest lineout under pressure 5 metres out.
Mariner and Bermuda Irish lock David Rorke majestically stole the ensuing throw in and a hard driving Brady appeared to have scored from the maul but referee John Weale correctly pulled the burly Irishman up for a double scoring movement when he was tackled shy of the line. Some robust exchanges up front saw tempers unravel and an unfortunate Mariner Jackson was sin-binned by the mistakenly instructed referee for a ghost punch.
In fact it was a very fortunate Tom Healy who escaped justice for a nasty looking spear tackle which had sparked off the fireworks.
Mariners opted to kick for the corner and expertly win the subsequent lineout. The green forwards adopted good body positions and drove an unstoppable maul towards the Promised Land.
The broad shouldered Brady made no mistake and crashed over from close in. Richard Holden made the difficult conversion to give his side the lead 14-7. Shortly after the restart Holden's golden boot struck again as he hammered a long wind assisted penalty to extend the lead 17-7.
The Rest staged a fight back and finally began to string together some forward surges lead by the powerful Jamie Billings. Referee Weale was growing increasingly impatient and truculent at the repeated efforts of both set of forwards to kill the ball at the breakdown. Finally he had no choice but to show green flanker Furbert a yellow card for a repeat infringement.. The resultant penalty and lineout saw the Rest execute a textbook take and drive. West Indies Captain Derek Hurdle soared in the air to pluck the ball and Billings bulldozed over to close the gap to 17-12. Chris Naylor slotted the difficult conversion to inch his side nearer 17-14.
Mariners' man of the match, stand-off Richard Holden, secured victory with two late penalty kicks for an historic 23-14 win.[[In-content Ad]]
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