Scraping a 17-14 win against a much improved Hadleigh team.

Wow, what a game. We warned the team that this was going to be a very hard contest and the 30+ mph wind just made it harder. Their kick-off reminded everyone that a windy Southwold common was going to be merciless as their kick blew back behind the halfway line!

Despite ominously losing our own put-in at the resulting scrum, we re-secured possession and Ben F used the wind to get us deep into their half. We then managed to get the ball unselfishly down the line eventually putting James over in the corner.

The pre-match warm-up focussed on ball retention, but Hadleigh's awesome rucking meant that we could have done with another few hours on this vital discipline. Hadleigh's rucking prowess turned over our ball on numerous occasions making it hard to string any phases together. And without possession we can't score tries. They were simply quicker to the breakdown and they went in lower and more aggressively than us - even driving Joe backwards on occasions. What we lacked in speed to the breakdown we made up for in sheer power which began to even-up the contest as we stepped up the intensity. Joe then got his own back driving several players back unceremoniously, But it was when Evan, Ben S and Jack FS combined to drive one of their players back some 20m that we felt the tide could turning.

Faced with relentless pressure, we had to wait till the last minute of the first half to get our second try. Step forward Josh once again - a cheeky chip and a kind bounce put him under the post for a seven pointer. But would this be enough for a second half playing in to the wind?

Hadleigh came out stronger and more aggressive than ever and we were on the back foot most of the third quarter. They had us camped on our line several times but our defence was resolute with the big men, especially Christian, stopping them reaching the line.

Our tackling looked a little shaky at times but on the whole was superb. Konnor was up so fast and low on their tap-and-go penalties that they rarely got any steam up. Scarley put in some superb textbook tackles as always along with Jon and Matt in the centres who were up against some fearsome opposition and took some nasty knocks.

Hadleigh ran in two well deserved converted tries putting them ahead. But their second try seemed to light our blue touch paper. Straight from the restart we were clearly determined to make amends. Some driving mauls and buzz balls put us over their line but the ball was held up. The resulting 5m scrum gave Joe the opportunity for yet another No.8 pick-up which he drove over the line.

We then just had to hold on to our three point advantage for the remaining eight minutes. We did.

As confirmed by the ref, this was one of the most good spirited but hard matches we have had the good fortune to witness and all players on both teams should feel very proud to have been a part of it. It was genuinely a shame that there had to be a winner, but it was a Plate match and so we were glad that it went our way.

Our coke drinkers in the boat race afterwards (aka our men of the match) were Josh for yet another accomplished performance and Felix who went on first at flanker and then as a winger. Felix epitomises the spirit of the team at the moment - fearless and committed in every aspect.

With only Stowmarket to beat now, the Plate final is in sight. So we need to sort out our rucking and general ball retention if we want to progress in to the Trophy tournament.

Well done boys.