6 Mar 2013

Six of the Best For Navy

by | posted in: Action Photography, Navy Rugby - TTL | 0

 

Kye Beasley carries the ball in to the heart of the Cambridge University defence as the Navy win a thrilling rugby match 38 – 28 at Burnaby Road, Portsmouth.

It started with defence. The light blues were quick out of the blocks and made the Navy look sluggish. Monopolising early possession the Navy were continually on the back foot.
However though they were without the ball their defence was committed and aggressive. Frequently they drove Cambridge back and for all of their early promise Cambridge could only manage two penalties through scrum half Seb Tullie.
The Navy’s first opportunity game through a penalty kick to set up an attacking line out. Chris Thompson secured the ball at the front and set up a driving maul.

 

As the maul approached the line Ben Priddey, in his first outing of the season, broke free to score the first Navy try, converted by skipper Dave Pascoe. The same scenario was to be repeated later in the half for the Navies third try only this time it was Marsh Cormack catching the ball to set up the driving maul.

 

In between the Ben Priddey tries the Navy produced some of their best rugby of the match. The lead up to the second try saw some excellent inter passing amongst forwards and backs before centre Dale Sleeman was able to break clear.
He out stripped the defence was a well deserved try. Cambridge also scored a well worked try of their own in the half when inside centre Danny Homes made the break and put Andy Murdoch in for the first of his two tries.

 

The second half again started brightly for Cambridge University but having missed a tackle to allow the Light Blues to exert some pressure Jack Foster soon made amends. Playing out of position on the wing he poached an interception and ran the ball in from 65m

 

A few minutes later he was scoring a carbon copy try with his second interception of the match. The Navy were now comfortably in control and seemed on course for a routine victory when they seemed to ease back. Cambridge University responded with two tries from fullback Christian Cooke and a second for Andy Murdoch to close to within a score of the home team.
However skipper Dave Pascoe galvanised his team and they responded in the best way possible. With ball in hand they lifted the tempo of the game for the last ten minutes. Forwards were running hard lines and the backs seeking to exploit space. Time and time again the Cambridge defence was under pressure but the Navy couldn’t quite break through.
Eventually following a probe down the right they moved the ball across to the left for replacement winger Kyle Wood to get the sixth and final try. Final Score 38 – 28

 

Nathan Huntley showed good variety at half back and was involved with most of the Navy’s best moves.
and with two tries each both Ben Priddey (right) and Jack Foster (left) had very good claims.
But for me the hard running of Kye Beasley coupled with some good set play in both scrum and line out made him my man of the match. However in truth it was a good team performance where the senior players set the standard and many of the younger players matched it.

Other Images

A full gallery of all the images from the match will be on the Navy Rugby 2013 page soon.

 

Leave a Reply