Reporter: Chris Fowke

The Royal Engineers Rugby Football Club welcomed the Royal Signals Rugby Club to the United Services Ground Chatham on a dry cold January afternoon for what was for the Sappers their fourth merit league game of the season. The Signals arrived with a young fresh running team that promised and produced a good performance. The Sappers had a selection problem on who to leave out of the backs, eventually opting to give Army squad fullback 'Bocker' Viljeon a rest after playing for the Army against a Gloucester XV the evening before at Aldershot.

Sapperrugby

1 - Nathan Young, 2 - Gareth Evans,
3 - Jungle Hince, 4 - Ian Black,
5 - Ralph Cooke, 6 - Jeff Saunders,
7 - Grant Gatford,
8 - Ben Hughes (Skipper),
9 - Tim Brewer, 10 - Martin Wright,
11 - Ben Seru, 12 - Dean Ross,
13 - Matt Webster, 14 - Dee Dranidulo,
15 - Bruno Green

Replacements: Kev Rank, Gilly Gill, Tom Hughes, Talli Taylor, Karl Titchmarsh, 'Bocker' Viljeon. Coaching Staff - Pete Rowlands & Mike Thomas.

The Signals started the match and the ball was caught by the Sapper pack driving into the Signals half, several phases of play pushed the teams into the Signals 22 before they were penalised for offside at the ruck, with Martin Wright kicking the penalty. 3- 0 to the Sappers.

     

From the restart the Signals were awarded a penalty for hands in the ruck by the Sappers and from a quick tap and well executed three quarter line the Signals full back smashed his way through the Sapper threequarter line to score under the posts, and with a good conversion lead 3-7.

From the resulting restarts the sappers again drove in to the Signals half and were awarded several penalties which again saw Martin Wright slotting the points to make the score 9-7. The Sappers continued to press and Combined Services winger Bruno Green and Ben Seru made good ground with some electric runs.From the base of a Sapper scrum skipper Ben Hughes playing today having played for the Army on the Tuesday evening drove over from close range to put the Sappers 14 - 7 in front. The Signals started to gain momentum and pushed into the Sapper half with their three quarter line begining to bring some useful moves into play, however it was Dean Ross returning at centre for his first game for the home side for three years that crossed the line just before half time and with a successful conversion the Sappers lead the Signals by 21 - 10 at half time.

The Sappers started the second half having brought on Tali Taylor at Wing and Kev Rank in the Front Row, however the signals started playing with good running angles, and with a chip and chase from the Signals fly half caught the Sapper wing in isolation and capitalised to score a simple try. 21-15. The Sappers rallied and Tali Taylor again picked up the ball from deep in his 22 and with some electric pace connected with the forwards on half way before Nathan Young off loaded to Ben Seru who broke three tackles to run in a magnificent try and with a sucessful conversion took the Sapper lead back to 28-15.The Signals displayed great spirit and enjoyed their best phase of the game keeping the Sappers pinned deep in their half for the rest of the match. They came close on several occasions and were unlucky not to score when they lost control as they crossed the line. The Sappers worked hard in defence and replacement hooker (his position not his job) Tom Hughes making his debut put in some crunching tackles. Both teams should be congratulated for trying to play fast open running rugby, and the Signals will no doubt look forward to adjusting the result when the Sappers play them at home next year.

Man of the Match - Forward Stalwart Ian Black. Blackie is a coaches dream. Turns up for every game and plays his heart out, will play in almost any position in the forwards and gives it 110%. Missing several regular forwards 'Blackie' produced an outstanding display and didn't take a backward step! Well done !

Result: RE 28 R Sigs 15

See also Sapperugby web site.