London Irish 29 Colchester Ravens 50

With the promotion of a number of “regulars” to the 1st XV, and some injuries, the Ravens had a slightly unfamiliar look when they played their return fixture with London Irish Wanderers.

James Parker and George Butt, members of last year’s Royal Hospital School 1st XV made their Ravens debut; Eamon Maguire, normally a scrum half played at second row, and regular centre, Adam Cooke was at flanker.

The game was played on an artificial pitch at London Irish’s impressive new facilities at Sunbury, the surface considerably assisting Colchester’s younger and faster side.

The Ravens started at pace, and within 5 minutes, scrum half Matt Wadling burrowed over at the second attempt to open the scoring.

Army centre, Conor O’Reilly, used his impressive pace to slice through the Irish defence to touch down for a second try; Ben Seymour added the extras for a 12-0 lead.

The pattern of the game was now being realised, with Irish using their much larger and heavier pack to dominate the scrums and driving mauls, but with Colchester’s speed to the breakdown and loose ball, and aggressive counter rucking, with No8 George Liversidge, and No 6 Adam Cooke dominant, consistently producing quick ball for the Ravens speedy backs.

The Irish countered with a converted try from a push-over scrum, before Raven’s full back, Charles Hammond, kicked ahead, caught the rebound and sliced through the Irish defence to touch down under the post; again Seymour added the conversion – 19-5. The Irish came back with a further try from a driving maul, before evergreen right wing, skipper, Paul Summerson, left his opponent standing to touch down in the right hand corner to give the Ravens a deserved half time lead of 24-12.

At half time, Butt moved to hooker, and scum half Matt Wadling moved to No7, with Alex Peterson replacing Wadling at 9, thus meaning there were now no less than 3 backs in the Ravens’ forward pack !!

After half time, Irish came back into the game, using their lumpy pack to grind down the Ravens; the Ravens were not helped by their misunderstanding of the referee’s requirements at the breakdown ! After a series of penalties, Irish scored a further try to lessen the deficit.

Nevertheless, after a period of Irish dominance, O’Reilly was again released, and the defence was unable to prevent him sprinting through to touch down on the right – 29-17.

The Irish were not to give up, and again their driving maul was used to good effect to reduce the deficit to a nervous 29-22.
However, George Liversidge stole loose ball, and following an impressive run through Irish defence, offloaded to Charles Hammond, who was able to draw his man to put left wing, Jermaine Watson into the corner; Seymour adding a superb conversion – 36-22. Again Hammond and Watson combined on the left for Watson to sprint away to add his second try; Seymour adding a further excellent conversion from the corner.

Irish took advantage of sloppy Ravens defence to add a consolation converted try, before Matt Wadling intercepted an Irish pass on halfway, burst through the Irish defence to sprint and touch down under the posts in the final moments; Seymour added the conversion to bring the Ravens tally to 50, to cap a thoroughly satisfying day for the Ravens.