The Lambs started their tour with an emphatic win over a select side from Rome. After spending several days acclimatising to the beautiful but chaotic city of Rome, the Lambs arrived at their first match full of confidence. The ground itself can at best be described as 'dusty', however any moaning was completely eliminated after some strong words and at kick-off the 15 starting Lambs, led for the day by Cummins, we're primed and ready.
The first few minutes proved rather frustrating for the Lambs with the mistakes expected of an invitational side evident and the Roman defence stubborn. However some wonderful phases led to a line break by Doe which was followed by a precise chip and then gathered by Coward to go over. Doe, whose kicking was of a high quality throughout, converted. Soon the Lambs were two scores up. After some powerful running by Cummins and Walsh, Cowards isolated a Roman defender and offloaded to Hall who ran it in under the posts.
The Lambs then suffered another frustrating period, perhaps due to the game being very open and frantic at this stage. Indeed, after Hall attempted to counter-attack from a deep Roman kick, his offload was snaffled by a Roman who ran it in. At this stage, the Lambs were only 14-7 up and eager to really imprint themselves upon the game. The Lambs added one further score before half-time, with Brodley profiting from some good work from Hamaoui.
Half-time Seleczione Romana 7-21 ISRFC The Lambs.
The coaches shared their frustrations with the side in the half-time break, with the reluctance to work off the ball to provide depth and width highlighted. No changes were made but the Lambs came out firing nonetheless. Lynes took on the Roman defence with some electric footwork and scored which was followed soon by Adamson who collected a difficult ball following a typical Ilogu break out wide.
The Lambs then began to utilise their large squad by making numerous changes. Ilogu crossed the try line only to somehow drop the ball, however the pace of the game was starting to affect the Romans. A fresh Poulton gathered a good pass from Wickham and targeted a gap which yielded another five pointer. Not to be outdone, fellow prop Simpson joined in on the act by running hard and direct near the line and successfully grounding the ball. Gooderham finished off the second half rout by using his powerful fend to squeeze over twice in the corner. The game finished 59-7 in the tourists favour, a well deserved win!!
The only sour note to the game was the sad loss of Carley for the tour to an ankle injury. Especially sad as he was having such a good game! However no doubt five hours in an Italian A & E cheered him up suitably!!!
We are currently en-route to our second game which is also expected to be our toughest. The boys are exuding a confident atmosphere and we are hopeful of securing a win against a tough Italian side.
All the best,
Poults.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Via Palestro,Rome,Italy
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