Sedgley Tigers started stronger on a pleasant early evening, perfect for running rugby, and threatened the Jets’ line in the first couple of minutes. After prolonged pressure, including two penalties which they chose to run, the Tigers worked the ball left and put loose forward Juan Crous over in the corner. The Tigers continued to make ground and it took almost 20 minutes for the Jets to get on the board, when the Tigers were penalised for holding on. That seemed to settle the Jets and, after a break by new signing Andy Tuilagi, Oriol Ripol crossed on the right to take the lead, 8-5. Honours were pretty even for the next while but eventually the Jets took a quick lineout and worked through several phases, setting up Mark Atkinson to dummy his way through the defence and run in from 15 metres out. The Jets had the upper hand now, with two tries in rapid succession. First, Oriol Ripol made a break, drawing the defence and slipping the ball to Alex Shaw who scored, then the fullback Ed Styles popped up in the line at speed and crossed. Mark Atkinson had finally worked out the difficult breeze by this time, and slotted the conversion for a 25-5 lead just before half time. The Jets weren’t finished yet, though, with James Jones breaking off a scrum and putting prop Rob O’Donnell over from close range. Mark Atkinson added the extras and the Jets turned round 32-5 ahead.

The second half started in the same style. Andy Tuilagi battered his way over under the post, then further Jets pressure stretched the Tigers’ defence and a long miss-pass sent Oriol Ripol clear on the right. With one of the two conversions succeeding, that took the Jets to 44-5 less than 5 minutes into the second half. Several substitutions seemed to disrupt the Jets’ rhythm though, and the Tigers started to fight their way back into the game. First, they won two penalties and took them quickly, gaining ground before Phil Jones scrambled over under the posts. Then, after almost 20 minutes of sustained pressure, they pitched camp in the Jets’ half and drove over from a set scrum, but were held up. A couple of minutes later, the Tigers kicked a penalty to touch, won the lineout and Phil Jones cut through to touch down under the posts. Sedgley largely remained on top for the remainder of the game and their pressure finally told, with Number 8, Ollie Cook scoring on the left. With the conversions, the final score was 44-24 to the Jets.

So, all in all, this was a brisk 11-try game, with the Jets apparently pulling away easily before the Tigers came back to make the score much more respectable. It was good to see some of the up and coming players chucking the ball about on a pleasant evening. My man of the match was probably blind side flanker James Jones, who put himself about well until he was substituted.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS