London Scottish Bs 76-0 Bank of England 2s – Middlesex Merit Table Division 2 – 16th February 2013
On a bright spring-like day, Scottish ran riot to record their biggest win of the season. The forwards ensured plenty of go-forward possession and turnovers for the backs to move the ball sweetly at pace finding gaps with ease and finishing off with style.
Scottish set out their stall from the off and made swift ground down the right, before moving the ball back across where a number of players could have scored and it was Jones who touched down. Five minutes later, a strong run down the left wing by Canning handing off several opponents put Cotterill in for the second try. Alkin was the next to score diving on his own chip ahead after superb passing movement back and forth in the backs.
Already comfortably nineteen points ahead in the first quarter, two tries in a minute put the game beyond any doubt. Firstly, the ball was moved wide to Marchant-Rowe who outpaced the Bank defence down the right wing for his first try. Then from the restart, Greene made the initial break, Cotterill was put through a gap and timed his inside pass well to Jones for try number five. Four minutes later, Marchant-Rowe ran in the sixth try from a quick tap penalty and deft passing out of tackles. The next Scottish touchdown was chalked off when Cotterill’s inside scoring pass to Alkin was adjudged forward, but just before half-time, Cotterill stole Bank ball out of the tackle and outpaced the cover to take the score to 43-0.
Bank started the second half with much greater determination, setting up their big forwards on the charge, but the Scottish defence held firm with relative ease. Bayliss-Brown had to depart the field after ten minutes leaving Scottish with just fourteen men. However, fifteen minutes in, Scottish got the scoreboard rolling again when Gibson waltzed over from Maisey’s quick throw-in.
Marchant-Rowe secured his hatrick, finishing off slick passing after Alkin fielded a clearance kick and opened up space on the left. Gibson had a score disallowed, but soon after May made sure of the touchdown after Sabau was held up just short. Cotterill got his hatrick try collecting a kick ahead. Bank threatened the Scottish line for the only time in the match hacking the ball upfield but over the dead-ball line before Alkin finished off the scoring running in from distance after a turnover.
Team: 15 Joel Maisey; 14 Charlie Marchant-Rowe, 13 Tommy Cotterill, 12 Grufford Jones, 11 Mark Canning; 10 Will Alkin, 9 Aaron Perrin; 8 Stuart May, 7 Mike Howlett, 6 Eliot Fallon; 5 Dennis Gibson, 4 Hamish Coventry; 3 David Greene, 2 Fraser Millar, 1 Will Bayliss-Brown.
Replacements: Gregor Paterson, Delroy Sabau, Pete Bremner, Tristan Deighton.
Tries: Jones 2, Cotterill 3, Alkin 2, Marchant-Rowe 3, Gibson, May; Conversions: Alkin 8.
Scoring sequence: 7-0 (3 mins), 14-0 (8), 19-0 (18), 24-0 (22), 31-0 (23), 38-0 (27), 43-0 (39); 50-0 (55), 57-0 (65), 62-0 (70), 69-0 (74), 76-0 (80).
Conditions: Bright and mild. RAG Pitch 2 heavy.
