Defence Academy Deny the Mariners Again

The Mariners suffered a frustrating loss against a resourceful Defence Academy side. Using the opportunity to field a team developing in patterns and style of play, the Mariners began in dominant fashion. Camped in the Defence Academy half with Jez Parsons kicking deep and the chasers preventing JSCSC from escaping their red zone. Early errors from JSCSC led to a try for winger Dane Waryck to finish in the corner.

Further tactical kicking from Parsons and scrum half Saberton kept the pressure on the younger team coupled with a dominant scrum performance led to the Mariners being in the ascendency. However, indiscipline crept in and coupled with losing a player to injury led to the Mariners conceding 10 minutes before half time in a rare Shrivenham foray into the Mariners 22.

The second half began with the Mariners continuing to use the scrum to good effect however a good counterattack led to another 2 JSCSC tries. Steve Hillman converted positive forward play to pull back a score. In the final few minutes, the Defence Academy managed a 70m kick clearance creating pressure and leading to an error from Mariners. Against the run of the game, JSCSC won a surprise scrum and converted a drop goal to end the game, with the Mariners losing 22 - 12.

The Mariners were undone by a team playing to a gameplan that worked. There’s more work to be done than just cutting out mistakes however there is real talent in the squad though they will need to build a winning momentum if they want to challenge the RAF and Army for the Inter Service trophy.

Mariners: P Price, E Gaught, A Johns; P Kewn, ⁠I Scovell; ⁠J Lloyd (C), ⁠A Ainscough, S Hillman; P Saberton, J Parsons, D Waryck, O James, V Valender, E Boden, D Williams.

Replacements: T Blackburn, S Pearse, C Otway, P Erne, M Thurston, J Addison, D Price, M Southern, E Johnson, J Pickles, A Kubara, R Cox.

 

Words by Ben Jones

Images by Cinnabar Studios