A new hope | First victory of 2017

A man with a Scouse accent, unfortunate bowels and admittedly good tackling technique once said: ‘Imperial have never won a game without me’. The record remained standing as IC 1s dominated the set-piece to win a comfortable away victory against Surrey. Man of the Match Tom ‘Shuz’ Szyszko put in an admirable shift as the forward pack won themselves a penalty try after numerous scrums on the opposition five metre line. Strong defence around the ruck kept Surrey’s attack to a minimum, although some slow folding caught IC off guard out wide a few times. However, excellent scramble defence kept Surrey just short of the line and IC were soon back on the front foot, and a late first half penalty helped Imperial lead 10-0 at the break.

A strong start to the second half put IC back in Surrey’s 22, and Shuz soon surprised all with a burst of speed and dexterity to batter down the defence and score a textbook reaching-try. Charles Price-Smith, spurred on by a female friend supporting on the touchline, slotted the conversion from out wide. Another try was scored out wide to bring the score to 22-0. IC pushed for the bonus point, but Charles wanted to catch up with his friend on the sideline and promptly got himself a yellow card. With Imperial’s defence stretched and some rushed exits, Surrey came back to score two tries before the impending whistle. Final score 22-12. Congrats to Shuz for a stand-out return, and to DNS for a quality defensive game.