Confidence boosting bonus point win at Bedford

South travelled to Putnoe Woods on a dry, warm and for once, windless day with the same squad that had done duty against Longton. Gaz Jones, however, resumed at tight head prop with James Shepherd on the bench.
Ath came out of the blocks in determined fashion from the onset of the game. With their South African contingent to the fore and a vocal crowd, they took the lead after only four minutes with an unconverted try from prop Paterson.
South seemed shell shocked in the early stages and with a penalty count of 8 to 0 it looked ominous that Ath would extend their lead. The Ath physical storm, however subsided and South clawed their way back into the game to equalise with a Max Castrogiovanni unconverted try after some considerable pressure on the home line.
South were now finding considerable confidence in attack, even from deep, as Nick Griffin, Kris McFredries and Mark Lord opened the game up while Gaz Jones and Mark Bayley barrelled their way forward with some determined carries. Nick Griffin scored South’s second try just before half time with Mark Lord’s conversion being deemed wide although to the South faithful it looked good.
The physicality of the game took its toll as Griffin limped off to be replaced by Danny Yeow and John Hemsley retired after a poke in the eye to be replaced by Stu Bale.

Buoyed by the fact that the lineout was going well and the set scrummage was beginning to overpower Ath, South made all the running early in the second half. Both forwards and backs combined to put Danny Yeow into the corner for a great try superbly converted by Mark Lord from the right hand touchline. A comical piece of defending, however, lead to Ath being handed a simple chance as Beagent capitalised on the mistake to score Ath’s second unconverted try.
Back came South with some uncompromising forward play to hand Lord a simple penalty chance that he accepted to move the score onto 10-20 in South’s favour.
Pushing for a bonus point South drove forward at every opportunity and Max Castrogiovanni added his second and South’s fourth try as Ath wilted under both the pressure and the heat of the day. The home side, however, weren’t finished as Blom their No8 broke blind from a scrum to go over the line to make the final score 15 -27 to South.

Overall South took the opportunity to regain their confidence and grind out a win against a physical side and some hostile home support. It was a 100% improvement from the previous week as we are beginning to show the spirit and application needed to be successful at this level. Lets hope we can carry things forward next week versus Luctonians at home.

Team: McFredries, Griffin (Yeow), Armstrong, Lang, Martin, Lord, Jordan, Bale.C, Castrgiovanni, March, Antill, Hemsley (Bale. S), Jones, Harris, Bayley.

Man of the Match: Max Castrgiovanni (closely pushed by Nick Griffin, again, for half a match)

As a footnote (this is my own personal observation and not a club opinion) I was disturbed by the level of abuse that some players and supporters had to endure from a section of drunken Ath members who took banter to an unacceptable level.
This is unusual when visiting Bedford Athletic RFC who have in the past been very hospitable and accommodating to both South’s team and supporters.