City League rugby see PWC take on Morgan Stanley

If was a dry but chilly night in East London which produced a cracker of a match and a Battle of the Bankers vs Big 4!?Both sides had very agile and fast backs, with relatively light forwards so the pace of the game was going to be high.

With numbers tight for Morgan Stanley - PWC’s Henry Kruis, gallantly swapped sides to balance up which just typifies the spirit of City League rugby.

A high ball to start the match, led to a strong attack from Morgan Stanley and after some back and forth play, PWC drew first blood with a try from Evan Ottway - who after several passes through the hands broke the defensive line to score in the corner but no success with the conversion so it’s 5–0 after only 5 mins.

Morgan Stanley not to be deterred by this early score, struck back almost in the next phases of play, some great work from the forwards created the momentum for the backs to move the ball into the willing hands of Ollie Mitchell who made certain to level the scores 5-5 however, PWC made short work of a response and Henry Campbell broke the Morgan Stanley line (and hearts) roaring through the midfield like a traction engine for PWC second try with a successful conversion.

It was going to be a hard night for Morgan Stanley as first Henry Campbell and then Ollie Mitchell from PWC added to the tally and both try’s being converted, increasing PWCs dominance in the first half as they pulled away to make it 5-24.

Morgan Stanley gave themselves a talking too, as their forward pack beginning to gain the upper hand, Morgan Stanley’s No. 9 shipping the ball in and around midfield allowing Karlos Davis to score a brace of tries and keeping them within sight at 15-24.

The pace was fast, and the hits were physical but unfortunately it was the City League’s referee Gary Marchant who pulled a calf muscle which meant he was unable to continue…. Luckily PWC player stepped up to the mark and did a fantastic job for the rest of the contest officiating the match.

Once play resumed, Henry Campbell took the ball at the PWC 22m sprinting into the Morgan Stanley half, a chip and run over the last line of defence a kind bounce enabled him to take it over the try line and simple conversion made it 15-31! Morgan Stanley refused to lie down and broke back again with another outstanding try from Evan Ottway on the half time whistle.?

The second half started with a bang…. One of the Morgan Stanley players clashed heads and was escorted off the field and the game was resumed with Morgan Stanley punishing the PWC defensive line and looked certain for a score however, Christian Murphy the PWC centre intercepted the pass to score an outstanding try and the score line read 20-38.

PWC where now showing their dominance with both the forwards and backs interlinking for scores by Ollie McAllister, Josh Rodgers and Henry Campbell however the biggest cheer went up from both teams when Henry Kruis, the unsung hero of the day scored for his adopted Morgan Stanley - I think the PWC team would’ve been less courteous if the score line was closer….

PWC continued notching up the points with tries from Roger Charles, Josh Gillies and Josh Ola but Morgan Stanley were not done as Captain James Waters drove the team forward as they returned to 14 players with a late try by Karlos Davis rounding off an eventful evening of rugby, played in the City League rugby spirit.??