Fortress Fengate falls to rampaging South

South visited the allegedly "Fortress" Fengate ground of Peterborough RFC this weekend not only silencing the hostile locals, but taking away their home unbeaten record to boot. Actually, Mark Lord's "boot" who kicked 11 points (including the winning drop goal) adding an interception try for good measure. Matt Thomas scored the other try in a magnificent performance by all the members of the team.
It was a case of "Proud to be South: Part II" as the the newly found fluidity, cohesion and beligerent defence continued from the Luctonians game, this time with the correct result, added to a great performance.

The game swung one way and then the other until the final whistle as both teams fought tooth and nail for supremacy. Early yellow cards for mike March and Posh's Ben Crooks set the pattern from referee Matt Carney who asserted his authority on the teams. He controlled the breakdown well ( something of a rarity at this level) and ignored ex Northampton Saint Jon Phillips who continually attempted to verbally influence his decision making in Posh's favour throughout the game.
Posh struck first through a Pete Goodley try converted by Duncan Low. South responded with the lord interception try and conversion after some positive running from Gaz Nicholson and support play from March, Chris Bale and the increasingly influential Sam Badham. Lord converted a monster penalty kick from just inside the Posh half to take South into a 10-7 halftime lead.

The second half started with continual South pressure forcing Posh to concede two long range, but kickable penalties. Lord unfortunately saw both attempts blown off course which diminished the superiority that South enjoyed at that stage. Posh regrouped and surged up-field to score an unconverted try courtesy of prop Mark Hodges. Score 12-10 to the home side.
On the hour Lord converted his second penalty and South introduced Matt Thomas and Steve Green to add fresh legs to the contest. The score now being 12-13 in South's favour. Again Posh responded with a Duncan Low penalty to nudge them ahead 15-13.
South showed great determination to get back in front with Kris McFredries controlling the pack South made large gains in the Posh 22. A series of aggressive drives from Jim Matthews, Mark Bayley and Badham enabled Lord to send out a long pass to Rich Lang who put Matt Thomas into the corner for an unconverted try. Score 15-18 to South. Again Posh came back for Ben Chan (on for Low) to score a penalty for offside to tie the scores at 18-18. From the resulting high hanging kick off South again forced Posh to lose control of the ball and it was fed back to Lord in the pocket to sweetly strike the winning 35 metre drop goal. Final score 18-21.

Reasons to be cheerful:

First away win of the campaign.
Took away Posh's unbeaten home record.
What a difference a good referee makes!
Completely silenced the unsporting element of the home crowd who took great pleasure in "Sledging" some key members of the South team and shouted during place kicks.
Aggressive, but controlled offence and defence (highlight - Dom Green's dump tackle on the aforementioned Phillips). One out of the Armstrong chiropractor handbook

Match report:Phil Lord