Very Impressive Performance

Crusaders 37 - Mersea Island

Crusaders avenged an earlier league defeat with a hard earnt victory over Mersea. Both teams deserved credit for producing an entertaining match played in atrocious conditions.
Crusaders went ahead when early pressure was rewarded with a pushover try scored by Robert Loone duly converted by Theo Elliot. Strong retaliation by the visitors was met with a solid defence from Crusaders, and when Ryan Harris broke out of defence his 60 metre dash was well supported by Ben Barker who outpaced the covered defence to touch down out wide for Crusaders 2nd try. Once again the play switched to the other end from the restart and this time the visitors efforts were rewarded with a penalty - 12.3.
Crusaders pack were enjoying a good success rate against a much heavier pack in the scrummaging and the visitors frustration cost them when 2 Theo Elliot penalties increased the lead to 18 - 3 at half time. As expected Mersea came back strongly in the 2nd half and reduced the deficit with a converted try.
Mersea were visibly lifted by their success and tested the Crusaders defence with some powerful straight running and it took a last ditch tackle by Crusaders outstanding hooker Anderton to prevent a 2nd try.
This was good end to end rugby and Crusaders worked their way back to the Mersea line, a scoring pass from Rob Loone gave Henry a gap to charge through and touch down, converted by Elliot. A powerful driving run by Crusaders hooker Dean Anderton was supported well by the forwards and captain Lewis White stretched Crusaders lead with a try.
Crusaders still had some defending to do as the big Mersea pack had sapped Crusaders energy in the scrums, but the home side put the result beyond doubt with a try that defied the conditions, slick handling between Theo Elliot,,Ben Barker and Tristan Smith gave the fullback a gap to exploit and score the final try. Theo Elliot added a conversion with an excellent kick from out wide.