G-Force 46 vs 16 Old Mid-Whitgiftian

Saturday 10 Sep 2011
London 2 SE

East Grinstead welcomed Old Mids to Saint Hill on Saturday for the opening fixture of the new League campaign, watched by a large crowd and with the pitch in immaculate condition.

G’s kicked off and regained possession putting early pressure on Mids forcing a penalty which new fly half, Rick McKenna comfortably converted giving G’s an early three point lead.

Shortly afterwards Mids equalized with a well struck penalty, after which G’s now began to get a grip of the game dominating both possession and territory.   It was however Mids who got the next score with a great penalty conversion from halfway to give the visitors a 3-6 lead after twenty minutes.

Grinstead continued to dominate the game only to be let down by early season rustiness squandering several good scoring opportunities.

However G’s stuck to their guns and were finally rewarded with Richard Tredgett crashing over from short range after quick tap and go penalty, to score the first try of the game.

McKenna converted to make G’s half time lead a slender 10-6.

The home side started the second half brightly with McKenna creating space from quality possession to put winger Sam Hampson away for an early second half try.

Old Mids came straight back and good pressure saw them charge down a G’s clearance and win the race to touch down with the resultant conversion narrowing the score to 15-13.

G’s then raised their intensity to come back strongly and a well worked backs move saw right winger Dunn join the overlap line to score in the left hand corner, again McKenna converted to make the score 22-13.

Despite Mids injuries and exhaustion after sixty minutes they slotted another penalty to keep in the game.

G’s made their bench work well when new prop forward Jermaine Weedon joined the fray together with Ben Gray and Tudor Carr in the back line.

By now G’s fitness levels saw them dominate the last quarter and the quicksilver McKenna darted through to score after an excellent pick and drive line out by the pack, extending the lead to 29-16.

From the restart G’s backs audaciously counter attacked from inside their own 22 metre line in a breath-taking handling move before full back Crittell finished under the posts, with the resultant conversion taking G’s into an unassailable 36-16 lead.

G’s were now in full flow with the pack providing excellent ball availability for the hungry backs to feed off and Downey and Carr both added further scores taking the score to 46-16 at full time.

Old Mids are an improved side from last season and for sixty minutes did well to defend and counter attack, but eventually G’s power saw them home.

The G’s second half performance in particular hopefully will provide the template for another competitive and successful season.

Next week ( 17 September ) G’s travel to old rivals Heathfield – for what promises to be another tight game in front of a large crowd – Kick off 3 pm.