McSorleys Match Report - Marauders 20/Oct/2018

Fungy and Momo's emergence from the woodwork nearly lifts Marauders to victory

By Connor Slattery

Kowloon Beavers provided the opposition for the Marauder’s third outing of the season, and any worries about squad depth we alleviated as players came out of the woodwork, with Fungy and Momo returning for the first time this season to bolster the pack. Indeed confidence was high before the game due to the unusual situation of having both better numbers and a lower age profile than the opposition, while everyone was curious to see how the new TIP formation devised by Chief Lau would work out.

Kowloon started as expected, with big runners trying to batter there way through and a ten who was happy to keep the game tight. In contrast the Marauders ran the ball wide early, and all credit must be given to the back through who got over their shock at actually being passed the ball to make some good yards out wide. This early pressure paid off when JJ Bull’s good line put The Irish Tumbler into space to run in the opening try.

Kowloon came back strong after that and discipline at the breakdown became a problem, resulting in a series of penalties conceded and eventually Rodney Chen being issued a yellow card for repeated infractions. This allowed the Beavers to build up a lead they would never relinquish, despite some strong effort from the pack to force their way back into the game. Will Binnie’s barnstorming run down the touchline from a lineout to store the first of his two tries was a highlight, while JJ Bull crossed the whitewash himself to keep hope alive.

The expected tiring of the opposition towards the end of the game never arrived, despite the assurances of one of our half backs that he had drank half the Kowloon team under the table and they were in no condition to last the pace. All involved kept fighting to the end, but failed to threaten the try line again and it ended up 33-22 to Kowloon.

Alas it wasn’t to be on the day. While there are some positives to take from the game, not least finally getting a conversion between the posts, a lack of structure in defense and discipline issues means we are still in search of the elusive first W.