Match Report

 W London II 38-38 S London II

17/06/06 (Courtesy of South London Storm)

South London Storm managed a pulsating draw with West London Sharks on Saturday in the searing heat of the early afternoon. The game had everything, tries, drama with sending offs, a small scuffle and a last minute try and a conversion to tie the game.

 

The temperature must have been well into the 80 degree mark when the kick off at around 1pm on Saturday afternoon between two of the strongest teams at the moment in the League. Wests started the strongest and an early try set them on their way with Storm not starting firing on all cylinders. The Sharks continued to circle on the Storm line but were well kept out by the strong defence. Storm then took to the game and blew the Sharks back down the pitch with a penalty and strong running. A kick on the last and a strong chase from Storm put pressure on the Wests winger who spilt the ball for a scrum. Alan Emerson took the ball from the back and ran round the Wests back line to score an unconverted try in the corner to bring Storm back to level terms. From here the pressure was the Storm’s. Jon Pearce scored a strong try after more pressure from the forwards. Wests fought back, however, and scored again just by the posts after a break from a scrum in their own half.

 

After 30 minutes the score was at Wests 10 Storm 8 a fight broke out which resulted in three sendings off with Storm reduced to 11 and Wests to 12. Storm took their aggression out in the correct way and scored out wide again through Dave Walters and then another strong run from a tap penalty after hard work from the forwards by Alan Emerson  resulted in his second try of the match, converted by Rich Pitchfork.

 

The second half started strongly for Wests as they pulled themselves back into the game with two converted tries before Emerson scored his hat trick try before firstly Paul Brown offloaded to Emerson and Emerson offloaded to Rich Pitchfork to score after a strong run to the line. With another penalty close to the line Emerson and Brown combined again before Brown sidestepped to the line to score a converted try which looked to have given Storm the edge.

 

Emerson rounded off a man of the match performance with his fourth try with ten minutes to go again converted by Pitchfork to take their total to 38. But with time running down the injuries and playing with one less man in the heat started to tell on Storm as the Sharks started to send the ball wide. And after two tries in quick succession (one converted) and with only seconds on the clock Wests got to their fifth and last tackle. Storm just needed the ball back and Wests ran it instead of kicking going wide with the overlap to score a converted try and bring the match level.

 

“It was a hard game for all and we just wish we had had the energy to hold on.” Commented coach Graeme Harker “ but everyone out there gave everything. Hardly any of them can walk at the moment but you have to be proud that they gave every ounce of everything they had. We ended with 11 fit players, two sent off and with four players sitting with ice on one or other part of their body, so you couldn’t ask for much more.”