So near yet so far.

South edged out by unbeaten Broad Street

South fielded virtually the same squad as last week although Nick Childs came in on the left wing for Jordan Curtis while Henry King took a place on the bench.

South started strongly with Josh McLaurin going over after a positive forward rumble. Mark Lord hit the post with the conversion. Broad Street got back into the game latching onto two South mistakes scoring through Southwell and Pimlow the latter converted by Stokes. Stung by the reverse South came back with some thrilling attacking play with Matt Fisher doing the hard running to put Dan Holmes in for South’s second try converted by Lord to tie the score at 12-12. Not to be outdone back came Street with Stokes showing a clean pair of heels to the South defence after another home mistake, the try going unconverted.

Half Time South trailed 12 -17.

Immediately after the interval South lost prop James Stapleford to injury being replaced from the bench by Mark Bayley.
The South backs were now in the ascendency and Connor Smith used his pace to break the Street line chip over the full back gather and score a fine individual try.
Lord added the conversion from wide on the right. Virtually from the kick off South did it again this time with Matt Fisher showing his lightning pace after an ACT move to burn into the corner. Lord again hit the post with the conversion.
Captain Mike March became the second South casualty being replaced by Wes Cartwright on the hour.
Street came back to score an unconverted try by Morris to narrow the score to 24-22, but South responded with another rolling rumble with Marcus Badham getting the touchdown. Lord added to extras to move South out to a 31-22 lead.
Joe Gavin was unfortunately yellow carded just after and while he was off the field Street full back Tee scored two tries both converted by Pimlow.
Lord nailed a penalty in between the tries, but Broad Street hung on to take the spoils by the narrowest of margins.

The game was a tremendous advert for running rugby with South creating more scoring chances, while Street capitalised on South’s mistakes to eventually outscore South 6 tries to 5. Street were a little more streetwise and had a number of shrewd older heads in the pack who eventually came to the fore.
Having said that South are a young team with great potential who have turned the clubs fortune around scoring 11 tries in the first three games – it wasn’t until league game 7 last season did we score as many tries.

Onwards and upwards to Scunthorpe next week.

Team: Holmes, Fisher, Smith, Gavin, Childs, Lord, McFedries, Bale C, March © (Cartwright), McLaurin, Antill, Badham S, Robson, Badham M, Stapleford (Bayley) – Unused replacement King H.

Man of the Match: Matt Fisher.