Round 5 Scores and Team News

I am a very long-term pirate (60 years!), but I must admit that our win aganst Ampthill was pure daylight robbery.

The boys from Ampthill were understandably distraught at the end as we scored in the final (83rd) minute. The pirates just couldn't get into the game through the first 70 minutes, though perhaps full-time fitness began to tell in the last 10 minutes. Both sides were defensively excellent, and there were very few line breaks on either side, which tended to snuff out the game. But how did the Pirates win after giving away about 20 penalties to about 5 from the A's? We also manged 2 yellow cards again. The Pirates other real strength was the defensive maul - Ampthill had about 5 catch and drive opportunites from about the 5 metre line, but were comfortably contained, and driven back (which we dismally failed to do against Bedford, and even more so against Jersey). The Pirates penalties in favour were mostly from destroying Ampthill in the scrummages. It was a strange game in so many ways, and Ampthill missed both their conversions, both from not particularly difficult position, which would have put them beyond catching.

However, in the end, the Pirates may have scored the try of the season for them. failing all through the game to string together more than 3 or 4 phases without turning the ball over, the try came when Ampthill lost their own lineout on the Pirates 22 with the clock already red. Suddenly the Pirates found their multi-phase play (I've just watched the replay, and it was exactly 20 phases) without dropping the ball, passing forward or failing to control the rucks.

So it was a terrific try, but I did feel sorry for Ampthill at the end.