A dry windy morning saw a great game of rugby kick off eventually after Ed's hard ref trouble. Fair play to them they found a willing volunteer, and he did a good job.

Walsall started really well to be fair, working well into Ed's 22, everything flowed well with everyone doing their role well. The rucking was very productive today, other games Walsall were a little rusty and slow to stabilise a ruck platform. After 11 mins of play came 6 phases of play that linked forwards and back in unison, moving the ball out the back of ruck and Joe Birch taking a quick ball at pace and using power and balance to weave through the Ed's defence and score to the left of the posts. 0-5 to Walsall. Walsall started on the aggressive front foot again gathering the restart and powering towards Ed's try line again. All the players seemed to adapt an telepathic understanding easily today with very little effort. Oh and of course they were far more verbal today. It took Walsall just 6 mins to get their second try. This also was a good team effort brought on by exerting pressure on Ed's attacking line and stifling their space, causing an error which gave Walsall clear advantage to push towards the try line.They took it with both hands and used platform attacks to good effect, allowing Joe Birch to score from 22 metres out. Again showing balance and the odd hand off, to score the second try. 0-10 Through out the first half the work rate was excellent and especially the scrums, winning plenty against the head. All players got a taste for the opportunity to carry the egg as far as possible.

After 26 mins through a small mistake in midfield from Walsall, Ed's capitalised on Walsall's brief lapse in concentration, playing good advantage given to them using it to good effect to go over from 22 metres out and score their first try. 5-10 Walsall. There was a small altercation towards the end of the first half involving several players. It seemed unclear why after a captains talk from the referee he decided to send a player from each side to the bin for ten mins. Still unclear now.. But our player a little puzzled took it well and walked off. Well done Max Mason.

Half Time 5-10 Walsall

The second half kicked off 14 a side. Both teams working hard to show who would be more dominant in this half. One passage of play came from a deep kick by Ed's and caught by Sam Ferguson, who ran it from his 5mtr line all the way into and passed Ed's 10 metre line. He used speed and good foot work stepping off either foot when he need to. This set the standard for the second half. Walsall pushed on and Ed's defence held firm for long periods of time, until Walsall finally cracked open the home guard. Walsall pushed deep into Ed's half using a well worked ruck to feed it out to the right hand side of the pitch, great interplay between 3 players resulting in captain Lewis Hawkins talking the ball on and driving hard for the line a quenching over for the try. 5-15 Walsall.

Max Mason came back on after a ten min break, more than making up for missing time on the pitch he made an excellent forging run deep into Ed's half. He was being driven out into to touch, so Max played a great behind the back reverse pass to keep the ball alive. Walsall were camped deep into Ed's half, to which the home team defended strongly making it hard for Walsall to gain more points. Ed's then tried to apply pressure from their own half, due to a complicated backs move they dropped the ball. Walsall's defence was up very quickly and made a great concerted effort to chased down the full back, which they did and resulted in Joe Birch scooping up the ball. He still had to beat a retreating defence, he did and went over for his 3rd try. 5-20 Walsall.

Ed's then had a spell of their own play making enterprise, which meant Walsall had to be sharp in defence. Walsall held strong, once again forced another error pushing Ed's back to their on 10 metre line. Walsall surged forward in meaningful waves, each on pushing Ed's further back. Until a massive group effort saw The Bandits push deep into Ed's 22 and link up 4 passes and allow Joe Birch to power through a tired defence. 5-25 Walsall

All credit to the home team, they weren't finished they pushed Walsall back after two penalties were conceded by Walsall, the second one was the most painful to watch as Ed's took a quick penalty and Walsall's lack of alertness meant they paid the price. A try to Ed's finished the game off.

Full time Edwardians 12 Walsall 25

Many thanks to Edwardians for the game today.

Rob's notes,

We played today with more purpose and belief in everything we did as a team, however like all good teams we can not afford to stand still. The development of the squad will increase each week, the screw will be turned as it were. Come to training with the same attitude as always and the progression together will reap the rewards you all deserve.

Well done lads, see you all Wednesday night.

Rob & James

Walsall RFC

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