Bridgford pavs the way for a successful season

A mix of youth and plenty of experience turned out to be the perfect blend for a Bridgford team coming up against a strong Paviors side.

Straight from the kick off Paviors took the attack to Bridgford with some strong running and good movement of the ball, stretching the defence on both sides of the pitch. But from a lineout just outside our own 22 a barnstorming run through the opposition inside backs and back row by Dre Forbes set the blueprint for the rest of the half.
Bridgy spent the majority of the time in opposition territory with a mixture of hard lines and enterprising attack, resulting in James Scott getting outside his opposite number on a couple of occasions only for the opposite full back to make excellent last ditch tackles.

This period of pressure was equally down to the great success we were having at lineout time from both teams ball which was orchestrated expertly by Darren Burley. The result was 2 kickable penalties giving a 6-0 lead.
As we continued to shift the ball wide a move broken down and the ball was hacked on by the Paviors winger resulting in a foot race between him and Dre. There was likely to be only one winner and as Dre tried to ‘ease’ his opponent out of the way the referee quite rightly awarded a penalty and invited Dre to have a 10 minute breather!

This period went by largely without concern and more importantly without a scrum! We even had the opportunity to extend the lead further with another penalty taking the score to 9-0. Unfortunately as the half and the 10 minute sanction drew to a close, a slip in midfield allowed Paviors pressure to tell with them going in for a try under the posts, making the half time score 9-7.
The 2nd half was a completely different story, Paviors threw everything at Bridgford through the forwards with a 15 minute period where we only briefly left our own 22, to be brought straight back again. But a mixture of resolute defending and sheer determination by the pack lead by the excellent Joe Wade and strong defence from Sam and Waggy in the centres meant the white wash was not breached.

We did have our moments with a few attempts at push over lineouts near the Pavs line and an excellent break from turnover ball which saw Daz running 30 meters before nearly completing the killer pass to Snakey out wide.
As time was running out it looked like we had to score on 3 or 4 occasions but last ditch defending this time by the home team prevented the score. The final attempt resulted in a penalty on the Pavs line and a sin bin for their full back. From the resulting lineout Dre capped of an excellent team performance with a push over try.

This was a really solid team performance with excellent endeavour shown by all, against a team who will no doubt be up there in contention for the title come the end of the season. Well done to all who took part.