Pirates RFC traveled to Dannevirke to play hawkes bay senior Bs defending champs Aotea, for a preseason hit out. Where we recorded our 1st win as a new team. You could tell from the pre match talk from the ref it was going to be a tricky affiar. It started at a frantic pace where preseason fitness was always going to be an issue. We started well with tom james scoring the first try for the club. After this there were a few rough calls, specially around ruck time, which lead to their sole try. The forwards couldnt get into the game as repeat infringing from aotea slowed or killed any momentum around the ruck, without being penalised. Chris kailahi was next to score, pumping his legs with anger from his good mate ropati being ruffed up at the previous ruck, goal kicked taking us to 14-7 at half-time. With a squad of 22, we were 3-4 short fitness wise, but aotea were much worse off i feel. Our backs looked alot sharper than theres, but we didnt get enough go forward ball due to the infrigments that went unnoticed throughout the game! Next to score was cool whitey from a quick tap. From here Aotea were out of the game and this was when it started to get a little dirty and the reffing went downhill too. More fitness, a few things to work at training and we will be looking good for next weekend against Dannevirke at Ashhurst 3pm, followed by A Night at the Races in the clubrooms. Man of the match; Tom James, players player; Braedon
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 09:50:22 +0000