Medic Kings toppled by Imperial Might
The team wept, but through their tears they could see victory on the horizon.
Imperial hosted Kings’ Medics at Harlington, looking for a win to bounce back from a disappointing defeat last week. IC got off to a bright start, dominating possession, territory and hitting hard in the contact.
However, errors crept in at crucial stages, allowing the unspoilt Kings’ tryline to somehow remain intact. After 25 minutes all the home side had to show for their dominance was a single penalty from resident South African, Charles “I can’t remember that Japan game” Price-Smith.
The team had also taken a devastating casualty with the loss of Tom Hedley to a broken rib. The team wept, but through their tears they could see victory on the horizon. As the half moved on, a couple of infringements gave the medics a bit of territory in the imperial half. Kings managed to work an overlap and send the winger in some space down their left hand side.
With the ultra reliable Billy Sixtrees deciding to take a ten-minute breather (having spent the rest of the half slicing through the Kings defence), we were left without a natural full back, and Kings scored in the corner, giving them a 5-3 lead going into the break.
However, it didn’t take Imperial long to regain the advantage after half time.
A few strong phases of play sucked the away defence in tight, and Charles sent Captain, and all round top bloke who does not have a leaky arse, David Nielsen-Scott flying through the defence on the half-way line. Smart hands got the ball round the full back through Lumber-joe Chopper McGrail and Alex Amato, before Nielsen-Scott got back on the end of it to dot the ball down for a score, with the extra 2 added from the boot of Price-Smith.
After this breakthrough, IC never looked back, playing together with far more cohesion and confidence. Good pressure at the lineout from Ali Zaboronsky forced the ball loose, sending author of this article, David Nielsen-Scott scything through the line like a faster and more handsome Bryan Habana. A simple pop to recently converted rower, Hugh Wilman got him over the line.
In this act, row row rower, Hugh managed in his first start something that has evaded housemate Tom Hobson for over three years, and he did not forget to scream about it in the bar later. With this Imperial were firmly in the ascendency at 15-5.
From the resulting kick off, Nathan Tomlinson got his tree trunks rolling and dragged four King’s defenders 15 metres up the pitch. Hard carries from Moorby and Clayton blasted IC up the pitch. A small knock on from kings gave IC a scrum in a good attacking position. A slick scrum move, starting with Zaboronsky, sent DNS into space again. Good support from Ed Durkin saw the electric scrum half zip in underneath the posts, with CPS adding the extras.
Not content with this, IC went in search of the 4 try bonus point. A powerful maul got Wilman within centimeters from doubling his tally for the day, but fortunately fresher James Field was on hand to grab his first score in IC colors, and to bring all 5 points back to ACC, with the final score 27-5.
