North 1 East
Percy Park 48 - 12 Wheatley Hills
Wheatley Hills were the visitors to Preston Avenue on a fine December day, mild and dry conditions with no wind to speak of made perfect conditions for running rugby and the supporters weren’t disappointed.
As is the custom, there were several changes to the team, George Purdy moved up from the bench to the starting fifteen. In the forwards, Josh Headley and Austin Phillips came into the second row while Sean Williamson joined the back row and in the backs, Park welcomed back Ricki Hasnip in the centres, with Dan Chambers moving to fullback. Park were also glad to see the return of John Scott to scrum half after 4 weeks out due to injury or the cold weather as some rumours would suggest.
It was Wheatley Hills to kick off, and with the kick not making the 10 meters, Park were awarded a scrum back on half way. A dart from Scott then a couple of passes plus some missed tackles and Ethan Wilson found himself under the posts making it a perfect start for Park, although Michael Grove surprisingly missed the easy conversion.
Guy Pike then found a gap in the midfield to race away, and with only the full back to beat sent an exquisite pass out to his left to find Dan Chambers to score his first of three tries for the afternoon. From the touch line Groves got the conversion to make up for his earlier miss.
After nearly scoring again and being held up over the line, Park were unable to convert from the resulting scrum, Wheatley Hills turned the ball over and cleared their lines, only for Pike to find another gap in the midfield and put Wilson in for his second try of the day.
Johnny Dubois was the next man to find open space in the midfield and after racing up to half way from inside his own 22, fed Pike coming on to the ball at pace, after turning the fullback inside out he sent the ball left where 5 or 6 Park players were lining up to score the try, Ricki Hasnip was on hand to take the pass and rather kindly opted to shift the ball on to Chambers instead of scoring the try himself.
From another midfield scrum, John Scott again ran at the defence and drawing three defenders then fed the ball to Chambers coming into the line from fullback, quick hands sent winger Leo Caulfield into space to run in from 35metres out, to end the half, with Park cruising at 31-0.
18 year old academy prop Daniel Gallon came on at half-time to make his debut and from the kick off, Park found themselves with a lineout 15 metres away from the Wheatley Hills line, the young prop added his weight to the rolling maul and Johnny Dubois dropped over the line to claim Park’s first try of the second half.
From the restart, Hills found themselves on the attack inside Parks 22 for the first time, after a couple of pick and goes the backline were let loose, only to spill the ball 5 metres out from the line, Scott picked up the ball and sped up field, a nice inside pass found Pike once more and the centre sprinted in from 60 metres out to claim a well deserved try.
At 43-0 down Wheatley Hills looked dead and buried, but credit to them, they never gave up and all their hard work was finally rewarded when after multiple penalties and a yellow card for Williamson, Hills found themselves in great field position, and after some strong runs from their forwards the ball was spun one pass wider for one of the back rows to crash over the line, conversion hit and Hills were on the board, 43-7.
Straight from the kick off Hills attacked once more, and after a couple of missed tackles in and around the ruck, they found themselves back in Parks 22, the ball was then sent through the hands for the winger to be put away in the far corner, the comeback was on?
But it was Park to score next, yet another break from Scott, who sped up field from one 22 to the other, unfortunately for the ball to go to ground from an inside pass. Hills cleared the pressure with a kick, merely for Pike to gather and yet again find space in the middle of the park, he held the last defender and spun the ball wide for Chambers to round of his second hat-trick of the season.
And that is the way it finished, 48-12 all 5 points in the bag, but a poor second half leaves Park with plenty to work on, hopefully with a few players returning, Park can now finally kick start their season and hope to move up the league. Next week Park are away to Durham City who are currently lying sixth in the table.