Pilgrims Promising Debut

Pilgrims 29 Battersea Ironsides 34

by Dan Gill

The Pilgrims got their season and first foray into Regional 2 under way in an evenly contested encounter which earned them two bonus points. The visitors opened the scoring when some lacklustre Pilgrims defence allowed the Ironsides blindside wing to take a short ball and burst through to score and give the visitors a seven point lead..Pilgrims responded well and after good running from Jimmy Walker and Stan Bull, debutant centre Brayden Smith was on hand to take the final pass and dot down by the posts to give Olly Ashley-Jones a simple conversion
The watching crowd didn’t have long to wait for the next score which again went to Ironsides after more weak centre field tackling led to another converted Ironsides score. The young Pilgrims side again responded positively, and after a series of good drives from the forwards debutant flanker Jimmy Walker picked a good line and ran in unopposed to level things at 14-14.. With half time approaching Pilgrims were caught out when Ironsides took a quick lineout, spread the ball wide. and exploited the space for a converted to give them a 14-21 lead. The break allowed both sides to address their issues and made for an even first 20 mins of before Ironsides extended their lead with a penalty goal. The city side then kicked a penalty deep into Ironsides territory. The lineout was won and the resulting maul was a text book example of set piece execution as hooker Stan Bull touched down for an unconverted score. They were reduced to 14 after Smith received a yellow card but despite the setback, Pilgrims added their bonus point try and took the lead when a tap penalty saw Ruben Kalonji driven over for a converted score. They made their task more difficult when Walker was sin binned for a high tackle, giving Ironsides a simple shot at goal to retake the lead, 26-27. Again w saw a good response and excellent work at the breakdown gave Ashley-Jones the penalty opportunity to restore the lead at 29-27. However, with the clock running down a missed touch kick was punished by Ironsides who kept the ball alive and turned it into the winning try.
Pilgrims: Everatt, Bull, Oliver, Sullivan, Hunt, Walker, Mackenzie, Evans, Lloyd, Geddes, Heatherley, Smith, Fielder, Ingram, Kalonji, Devine, Dengate.