A Game of Two Halves at “The Lane” Sees Hoppers off to a Winning Start
Seniors: First XV: 6th September 2025
| Grasshoppers | 42 | 35 | London Irish Wild Geese |
Grasshoppers welcomed London Irish Wild Geese to "The Lane” on a glorious late summer’s day as they started their third season at level 6 (Regional Thames 2). G’s kicked off from the railway end and for the first 10 minutes of the game it was pretty even. However, after 20 minutes G’s saw themselves 0-14 with two converted tries from the visitors. G’s though, finally started to get more possession and were rewarded with a well taken try from full back, Chris brown and the conversion from stand-off, Charlie Lecuyer narrowed the gap to 7-14.
G’s continued to press but a combination of silly mistakes and penalties allowed the visitors to score another two converted tries to widen the score to 7-28. Then just before half time G’s further showed their true potential with a second unconverted try from Chris Brown who took an inspired 5 metre penalty to make the half time score 12-28 which gave the home crowd hope for the second half.
The second half started badly for the visitors as one of their wingers sustained a serious shoulder injury which delayed the game to enable him to be safely removed from the pitch. The game restarted with a G’s penalty, and they duly took the game by the scruff of the neck and pulled the score back to 27-28 thanks to tries from prop, Aaron Sheehan, and winger, Louis Dunn (the latter to the great joy of his girlfriend Ella) and Charlie Lecuyer added a conversion and a penalty.
G’s continued to press and finally took the lead with Chris Brown’s hat-trick try which Charlie Lecuyer converted to make the score 34-28. So, it was chewing fingernails time again at the The Lane as we entered the final stages of the game. Could they hang on?
The visitors were quick to dampen the hope of the home crowd with a converted try 34-35 to retake the lead. G’s though, wouldn’t lay down and Charlie Lecuyer slotted a penalty to retake the lead 37-35. Thew!
G’s kept pressing and it was Aaron Sheehan who stormed over for his second try to make the final score 42-35.
G’s are at home next week to Brunel University, 3pm kick off.
