Match Report: Grasshoppers v Stevenage

Seniors: First XV: 9th September 2017

Grasshoppers

27

20

Stevenage

Grasshoppers welcomed Stevenage Town for the start of their 30th season at MacFarlane Lane which was celebrated with a pre-match lunch. The 30th season was kicked off by the visitors playing up the slope and G’s struggles to get onto the game and after fifteen minutes saw themselves 0-10 down thanks to a try from Stevenage second row, Conor Mitchell a conversion and a penalty from centre Adrian Curry. G’s though got themselves back into the game with a well taken try from winger Tom O’Halloran after some brilliant running rugby with stand-off, Conor Gilmore adding the conversion. G’s continued with this style of play and drew level 10-10 with a penalty from Conor Gilmore. All looked positive from a G’s prospective when they went 24-10 ahead thanks to a try from skipper and flanker Callum McCormack and then a second from Tom O’Halloran with two well taken conversions. However, the run into half time was difficult as the visitors took control and could have narrowed the gap but for some heroic G’s defence to retain the lead at 24-10. Stevenage started the second half well with plenty of driving rugby from their forwards with G’s struggling to prevent them making ground at first tackle. This saw them narrow the gap to 24-15 with an unconverted try from scrum half Jaydin Elley-Murphy. G’s struggled to gain any momentum during the second half and failed to convert any territory into points until Conor Gilmore converted a penalty widen the gap to 27-15. The visitors though came back with G’s failing to get themselves out of their own half and scored a third try through their player of the day, Conor Mitchell to make it 27-20 and a nail-biting last ten minutes for G’s who steadied their defence to run out winners on the day. G’s player of the day was Tom O’Halloran. Next week G’s are a way to Kilburn Cosmos 3pm kick off. Old Haberdashers II 7-31 Grasshoppers II A fantastic away win for the 2s in their pre-season preparation for the MMT league starting next Saturday. Grasshoppers endured an opening 15 minute spell of attack by Old Haberdashers camped in our 22 without conceding a score, against a stiff wind and uphill. This effectively broke the back of Old Haberdashers and sapped all their energy. Grasshoppers proceeded to dominate in every aspect of the game particularly at scrum time. Forwards carried hard particularly Chris Hodeib, Dan Pitkin , Matt Rees, Trebor Coaks and Andrea Battiato. Overall forwards were huge on defence with outstanding tackling, as were the backs. When the backs had the ball our pace outside told with Ahmed Abdali scoring two good tries. Kieran Ttouli was brilliant at FB with his exit kicking getting us out of trouble (especially as he is transitioning to 2nd row/ back row). A good solid performance from the whole team and a nice start to a season full of promise. Availabilities allowing a top 3 placing this season is totally achievable.