Unlucky 2nds in the cup

Dagenham II’s made the short trip down to Kings Cross Steelers for the first round of the John Adler Cup with a few old heads but a couple of debutants. The warm ups were of stark contrast, Kings Cross opting for the more conventional team runs and stretching while Dagenham favoured the traditional, ‘fag and chuck the ball about for 20mins’.

Despite this, this first half was a fairly even affair with both teams playing some decent rugby. Kings Cross managed to score twice in quick succession, score 12-0 to the home side. Dagenham looked threatening all half and put pressure on the Steelers, this pressure resulted in a great individual score by Maleek who sat down 2 opposition players before running in under the posts. Hoggy converted, (12-7). Then, in what was surely the play of the match, Drakey, fresh off his 10 minutes ‘enforced break’, caught the ball on the 22 and the Steelers defensive line parted as if he was Moses himself. A gut busting ‘sprint’ followed as the Kings Cross fullback got handed off and Drakey slid in for our second of the game, unconverted (12-12). Half time score (12-12).

The momentum was all in Dagenham’s favour heading into the second 40 but it was Kings Cross who started the second half the strongest. This was made worse by Tank’s ‘misunderstanding’ with the referee which resulted in a red card for the prop. It was always going to be a tough ask competing against Kings Cross II’s, who are a league above us, with 14 men, and this proved to be the case. Despite the best efforts of a resilient Dagenham defence Kings Cross managed to cross over for multiple tries before the game was stopped prematurely for a head injury. Final score 34-12.

All the lads that pulled on the shirt had a great game and I think the first half was a much better reflection on how well matched the teams were.

1. Tank
2. Fricker
3. Drakey
4. Brad
5. Emilio
6. Francis (Jake)
7. Kingy
8. Fergie (Tom)

9. Evans
10. Hoggy
11. Dave (Jonny)
12. Paul
13. Maleek
14. S.Riley (Nathan)
15. Ballard