RUNWELL WYVERNS 25

HALSTEAD TEMPLARS II 0

John Adler Trophy

HALSTEAD Templars seconds played their first and only competitive fixture of the season at Runwell Wyverns in the John Adler Trophy.

Fielding a flat 15, with a couple of guest appearances from players from Witham twos, the Templars were without any recognised centres and so flanker Ben Bird and hooker Adrian Illingworth filled the 12 and 13 jerseys, while Aeron Stubbs played at scrum-half.

The Templars also handed debuts to flanker Curtis Streamer and utility player Paul Bromley, who started at full-back.

Halstead conceded early to a strong Runwell side.

Good running had put their centres through or round the defence on a number of occasions only for wingers Tom Ranson and Charlie Townrow to make excellent covering tackles.

But each attack thinned the line of defenders and it wasn’t long before the weight of numbers allowed the hosts to cross the line.ng scrum-half taking the place kicks as he would go on to miss all five shots at goal, two from directly in front of the posts.

Halstead lost hooker Charlie Cooper before the first half was up after a clash of heads and Runwell, in the true spirit of the game, lent Halstead one of their many substitutes so the game could continue with full numbers.

Halstead had a number of chances in the first half with Ed Merry at fly-half kicking well for position out of hand and line-outs were well contested between both teams.

However, the best chance was a break away run by Bird.

Charging through the hosts tackles he had managed to get past the full-back only to inexplicably pass the ball with the try line at his mercy.

Runwell led at the half-time interval 10-0 and doubled that lead as the second half progressed.

Halstead however, counter-attacked at every opportunity with penalties alternating between scrums, line outs and quick taps with no thought to taking the easy three points on offer.

Smith was a continued thorn in Runwell’s side as he made good ground and with the support of the Witham pack over him and Stubbs firing quick ball out to Merry, there was always the opportunity of a score.

Templars did spend the final ten minutes of the game on Runwell’s line hammering away to try to get that illusive score to the point where, after repeated infringements to keep them out, Runwell lost a player to the sin bin.

The referee wasn’t interested in penalty tries and to rub salt into Templar wounds, the ball was turned over on the next drive and Runwell scored their fifth and final try with the last play of the game.