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ASHFIELD 2nd XV 34 - 3 RIPLEY RHINOS 2nd XV

FRIENDLY
Saturday 29th March 2008

Rhinos took 17 players across to a strong Ashfield 2nds for this friendly at a soggy and windswept Moor Lane. Ripley managed to put out a contested front row for this game with huge credit going to hooker Dave Arrowsmith for moving across to tight head prop for the first time, and to winger Craig Culshaw for stepping in at hooker. Rhinos also welcomed back the solidity of second row Richard Mullard for his first match of 2008 and his reassuring presence helped steady a pack under pressure from their bigger hosts. The lineout was a lottery all afternoon due to the wind with flanker Nick Lovell battling valiantly for any ball he could win. Ashfield scored two tries in the opening quarter before fly half James Franco responded with a good penalty. Ripley's defensive effort was monumental with flanker Adam Beecroft tackling anything that came his way and the centre pairing of Liam Porter and Martin Cooper not letting anything through their lines all afternoon. Nevertheless Ashfield were a good attacking outfit and managed another try before half time to go in 17-3 ahead.

The second half was more or less a repeat of the first. Ripley tried to invent some decent attacks through skipper Ben Heanue picking up from scrums and Paul Stevenson working his magic from scrum half, but mostly having to defend Ashfield's attacks. Porter and Cooper were strong runners when given the ball but Ripley couldn't manufacture more than a couple of snap drop goal attempts from Franco. Ashfield scored three more tries to come out worthy 34-3 winners.

Ripley battled hard in this game and showed great team spirit to get a full squad out and a contested scrum. Their man of the match was fly half James Franco who gave his all and was the focal point of Rhino's attacks.

Rhino's rugby training for both men and women is from 7pm-9pm on Thursdays on the floodlit Astroturf at Mill Hill School in Ripley - all new players are welcome - for more details ring 07816 779018.