PJF cede local bragging rights

Old Mid-Whitgiftians 34 Purley John Fisher 17

Purley John Fisher yielded local bragging rights in this local derby on Saturday. This was a much tighter London 3SW match than the score line suggested although OMWs ran out winners outscoring PJF by 5 tries to 2. The flow of the whole game rested on PJF’s hard graft pegging their hosts in their own half for much of the game. Yet somehow OMWs managed to dig deep and attack from deep.
The home side opened the scoring by catching PJF asleep at a line out; a quick short throw and run down the tram lines saw them cross the goal line and then convert the try. Soon after OMWs effective No 8 took the ball from the back of a retreating scrum and fed his scrum half. Quick hands soon freed the winger to run in try 2. From here PJF managed to capitalise on their scrum and line out dominance by attacking hard down the centre of the park. Nick Owen thundered through the defence and recovered from a tap tackle via a somersault, steadied himself and offloaded to prop James Quigley. Quigs crashed through a couple of flailing tackles and passed to Ben Grundman, the second row work hard and crossed to open PJF’s account. Skipper Dan Martin slotted the conversion and we saw half time reached at 12-7.
OMWs re-started better as they returned the ball from a PJF break with interest through their hard, straight running centre and winger. PJF were caught flat in defence and OMW scored a converted try 3. Soon after they notched a penalty and seemed unassailable at 22-7. Despite several questionable decisions from the official, PJF managed to secure sufficient possession and field position to allow Martin a successful penalty kick. From the re-start PJF pressured OMWs into working of poor quality ball and again they were pinned deep in their own half. From this pressure full back Mark Trumper crashed into the line and carved his way through the covering defence to score PJF’s second try, Martin converted and PJF were within 5 points and looking strong.
Still, credit to OMWs, who stuck to their task and scored 2 late tries to secure a 5 point win. Disappointing for PJF who must regroup during the next couple of Festive weeks and come out in 2015, fighting and showing what they are actually worthy of.