Mersea youngsters play with pride in difficult conditions

London League division three north east

Mersea fielded a younger inexperienced side, showing seven changes from the previous match, and lost on a very heavy pitch which made scrummaging very difficult.

Wisbech scored a converted try after four minutes when a lapse in Mersea’s defending allowed Wisbech.

Merseathen really got stuck into Wisbech and only very good defensive work kept Mersea from scoring.

The visitors were applying good pressure when a long kick caught the visitors out and resulted in a penalty awarded against them for not releasing the player in the tackle.

Wisbech kicked a superb penalty to put the home side in front by ten points.

Mersea went back on the attack with Stu Bradshaw prominent with some good attacking play with ball in hand, making many yards despite tacklers hanging on too him.

Following a charged down kick by Wisbech, yet another long kick into the Mersea defence caught them out of position, conceding another penalty out wide which was converted again.

From the kick-off Wisbech caught the ball and kicked very deep.

The ball stood up in the muddy conditions and, with Mersea failing to clear their lines, another defensive kick was charged down and gathered for Wisbech to score an unconverted try to put the score at 18-0.

Mersea then gathered themselves to attack the Wisbech defence and there was more good open running play by Bradshaw, who was causing problems for the home side with his aggressive running with the ball in hand, backed up by the excellent Rob Pickard.

However, a turnover ball allowed yet another long defensive kick, putting Mersea on the back foot on their own 22 metre line.

They conceeded another penalty which was duly converted.

Mersea picked themselves up and, following sustained pressure in the Wisbech 22, a rolling maul saw Brendan Cook driven over for an unconverted try out wide.

Mersea then applied good pressure on Wisbech in their own half and kept trying hard to play constructive rugby.

However an injury to Mersea scrum-half Dave Cawtheray saw a switch to that position by outstanding flanker Rob Pickard, who continued to play his heart out.

Mersea’s other outstanding flanker Moncur continues to make rapid strides in his first full Season and is definitely one too watch for the future.

The other young players did not let their heads drop and played with great pride until the end of a game.