Royal Marines
Matches
Wed 19 Jul 2017
Parachute Regiment
30
18
Royal Navy Rugby League
Royal Marines
Trafalgar Cup 2017

Trafalgar Cup 2017

Keith Humpleby20 Jul 2017 - 15:47
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Parachute Regiment 30:18 Royal Marines

Another Trafalgar Cup fixture full of incident saw the Paras take the title for the first time in 4 years winning comfortably over a Royal Marines side who by their own high standards had a bad day at the office.
A good crowd saw the match on a baking hot afternoon at Colchetser Rugby Club who was great hosts for the midweek afternoon match. Not surprisingly the crowd was very partisan with a steady stream of busses and coaches bringing the Paras from all corners of the Garrison for the match.
Right from the off the tackles came flying in most of them being fair although a couple did earn the opposition a penalty awarded by the officials led by Jimmy Collier on the day. The biggest penalty count was for offside with neither team heeding the official’s warnings which led to a scrappy match at times. First to score were the Paras, a sweeping move out to their left saw Andy Windsor cross for the try with an excellent conversion by Ben O’Connell seeing the Paras take the lead which they never surrendered. The next ten minutes saw the Corps fight their way back into the game but any advantage they got seemed to end in lost possession. On the other hand the Paras pressed for a further score but stern defence kept them at bay. Eventually the pressure did tell and the Paras crossed for their second try, Blind side Prop Sam Jones bursting through for the score, a missed conversion kept the score down to 10-0. The Royals once again took the game to the Paras after a poor return from the kick off, the pressures forced the Paras into conceding a succession of penalties resulting in a team warning and almost in the next play Full back Danny Patrick committed another foul and left the field for ten minutes. Despite this numerical advantage the Royals could not break the defensive line. A couple of promising moves looked to have cracked it but again spilled ball meant after half an hour it was still 10-0 to the home side. As the half drew to a close a further converted try for Paras put them into a commanding lead however back came the Corps and on the stroke of halftime Danny Heaton brushed the Paras aside to touch down under the posts, Sean Casey adding the extras 16-16 at the break.
By mutual agreement the half time break was increased by a whole 5 minutes to allow a bit more despite from the baking hot conditions wit the temperature still in the high 20’s. With the game underway the RM looked to push on from their good finish to the first half but it was the Paras on the board first, a soft penalty conceded gave O’Connell straight forward 2 points, 18:6. Standoff O’Connell was back in the game for the next score, the Paras had used short kicks as a tactic before but this time it came off, O’Connell getting round the defence to gather the ball and touchdown, going on to convert his own score he had taken his side out to 24:6 lead with 15 minutes left. With the match almost beyond them the Corps salvaged some pride, Sean Houghton scoring a poacher’s try from the play the ball 24:10. This spurred the RM on and as the clocked ticked down Rowan Griffiths-Jones went over out wide for the Corps, 24:14! Sadly this was not the hoped for comeback, Paras winger Windsor scorer of the games first try crossed for his second and with the almost inevitable O’Connell conversion it was 30:14. Into the last few minutes and the RM salvaged some pride wit another try again unconverted to leave the final score 30-18. Despite a relatively good spirited game the last minutes of the game were marred by a mass brawl involving most of the players, Ref Collier and his assistants restored order and after a long deliberation a player from each side was sent off and another from each side sin binned. As a result the last moments of the game saw both teams reduced to 11 players a side. Final score then 30-18 a disappointment for the Corps but the chance to avenge the defeat will be at Taunton RFC next year as the RM have ‘home ‘advantage

Match details

Match date

Wed 19 Jul 2017

Kickoff

14:00
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Hydration Partner - iPro Hydrate
Club Sponsor - Forces Mutual
Club Sponsor - Fujitsu
State Of Origin Sponsor - QinetiQ
Club Sponsor - Royal British Leigon
Main Sponsor - NAAFI
Club Sponsor - Juniper Networks
Club Sponsor - The APCL Group