Close Game

Saturday 26th Feb

Crusaders 2 V Uea

Crusaders 15 19 Uea

Crusaders 2s were at home on Saturday to top of the table Uea who had scored points for fun in the last couple months

Crusaders had a strong side out and we talked about keeping it tight within the forwards and stopping Uea running a lot of ball from the backs

The first 20 minutes were very close with both sides playing good rugby and Crusaders defending well. Uea scored first when the prop went on a good run and to be honest we should have put the tackles in and stopped him 5-0 to Uea kick converted 7-0. Crusaders came close a couple of times but the Uea defence was very good. Uea made a good break down the wing but a great chase saw us stopping them short of the line.
At half time we were still well in the game and made a few changes. We started the half very strongly and were camped on the Uea line but good defence and bit of bad luck saw us unable to cross the line.
We were looking the better side and from another great driving maul went very close to scoring but the maul was pulled down again by uea and they got away with it should have been a penalty try.
The forwards were now in total control and uea could not deal with the strong pack but the backs to there credit were excellent and were able to stop all the good moves from our backs. Against the run of play Uea broke clear from a maul and a good move in the backs saw them score again 12-0 but the kick was missed from in front of the posts.
The Uea would have thought are heads would have dropped and they would run away with the game, not something we ever do and straight from the kick off the forwards turned the ball over and a good quick move saw the ball end up with Steve Dack who still had plenty to do but scored in the corner 5-12 conversion missed. We carried on where we left off and came close again from a forwards catch a drive but turned over on the line and uea cleared. A good steal from a Uea line saw us break into the 22 and after a few attempts by the forwards to get over the line Tom Fiddy picked up and was not going to be stopped from scoring 10-12 kick conversion missed game on.
With Uea rocking and our tails up we looked like we could go on and win the game. From a line out on the half way line we stole the ball but the pass out was intercepted by the Uea no 7 who scored under the posts 10-19 conversion taken 10-19.
The game looked to be gone but we still kept are heads up and after more good work on the line by the forwards the ball came out on the blind side to Tristan who scored 15-19 kick missed

Great team performance and nice to hear the UEA say what a tough game it was and the hardest of their season. Well done to every single player involved in the game you all did yourselves proud

Back to winning ways this week.....

Much love the boss x