UCLU Men’s Rugby 1st XV Kick Off the Season with a Storming Victory

The season has only just kicked off, but for UCLU Men’s Rugby the completely new dynamic of the team and a handful of new talent proves promising for the rest of the season.

The UCL forwards took control of the game early on, displaying unstoppable power and superior fitness to hold possession and work the ball into a dangerous area. The back line capitalised on their hard work, seamlessly spreading the ball wide allowing Sam Tagliaferri to offload with great flare and release Tom Brocket who finished in the corner.

Tom Featherstone crashing through Queen Mary’s line

However, UCL briefly lost focus and started making things hard for themselves both in attack and defence, allowing Mary’s to get their own points on the board. A huge performance from first year Tom Craig put some of the senior players to shame, with an enormous tackle count and work rate at the breakdown showed that the game really was theirs for the taking.

The wise words of pack leader Ferg Taylor settled the team, and UCL reclaimed control of the game with an impenetrable defence, making it hard for Mary’s to keep any possession. Joe Heagerty playing at 9 stood as a shining beacon of hope for the worried UCL fans on the sideline. His patience and experience ensured that the ball was released just at the right time to the back line, giving Zach Stamp enough space to fight his way to the try line before half time.

Smashing tackle brings UCLU and Queen Mary cheek to cheek

A new half brought on fresh legs and a better attitude, and UCL came out with all cylinders firing. Veteran of the club Jonny Miles welcomed first year Nick Edmonds into the front row, as the two proceeded to humiliate the Mary’s pack. Regardless of which team had the put in, scrums were turned into 20 yard rolling mauls towards the opponents try line. This made it very hard for Mary’s to set a defence and Andrew Smith-Doctor broke the line like a hot knife through butter. Zach Stamp took it upon himself to reward the outstanding work rate of the forwards, finishing three further well-worked back moves, gaining himself four tries in total for the match.

Second rower Tom Carr seems pleased with the result

There are both positives and negatives to be taken from the guys’ first game, but overall they set a strong foundation to achieve great things this year, and have ironed out the errors that were present last year.

Try Scorers: Tom Brocket, Zach Stamp (4)

Conversions: Andrew Smith-Doctor (5)