Inaugural Voltman Trophy Final
Final Goes Down To Wire
Two point thriller in Rabat
Code:
CW Crusaders Jamie Lyons Invitational XIII
1 Neil Pickup 1 Shaun Briscoe
2 Gaurav Nayak 2 Darren Albert
3 Jamee Gray 3 Jamie Lyon (C)
4 Alex Blackman 4 Brent Tate
5 Andrew Cameron 5 Nathan Blacklock
6 Sean Fuller 6 Tommy Martyn
7 Alex Crampton 7 Chris Thorman
8 Sean Bennett 8 Danny Ward
9 Sriram Gurunathan 9 Micky Higham
10 Rich Langley 10 FuiFui MoiMoi
11 Dale Brumby (C) 11 Bryan Fletcher
12 Thamba Mamesh 12 Vinnie Anderson
13 Rob Malone 13 Ellery Hanley
++Interchange
14 Rich Hingston 14 Steve Renouf
15 Tharmi Longanathan 15 Lee Jewitt
16 Håkon Mørk 16 Mark Gleeson
17 Nath Patrick 17 Phil Clarke
50,000 spectators eagerly packed into "The Goat Herding Ground", Rabat, Morocco (got to do our bit to spread the gospel
) to see a high tempo, fiercely contested and extremely close final.
Tommy Martyn got the game under way with that big boot of his and straight away all the momentum, like the ball and Dads Army following it, flew towards the Crusaders try line. The Crusaders were under pressure for every second of the first ten minutes, not helped when hooker Sriram Gurunathan got himself sin binned for a high shot on FuiFui MoiMoi. The consequent penalty gave JLI a chance to attack the line and Darren Albert took the opportunity to cross for the first points of the game. However, fiery red head Neil Pickup used his pace to grab the game by the scruff of the neck, bursting through to score the Crusaders first try and, 3 tackles after the restart, finding a hole out wide and speeding through it only to be caught by Nathan Blacklock and drop the ball. An exciting, attacking game ensued, and Lyon's Dads Army regained the lead in the 20th minute, when Brent Tate put Briscoe over. Lyon, however, missed the convertion.
The game had a bit of a wait until the next points were scored, but when they were scored, 6 and a half minutes from half time, they gave the CW team a crucial but slender 2 point lead. Jamee Gray made up for a couple of knock-ons by barging his way through South Sydney Rabbitoh Bryan Fletcher and plonking ball down over the try line before slotting the convertion himself.
That was how the score stayed until half time and just a further 48 seconds afterwards, when ex-Wigan and GB forward Phil Clarke regained the lead and Jamie Lyon added the 2. However, Gray turned the magic on again 5 minutes later, but his missed attempt at the convertion left the scores level at 16-16. Shaun Briscoe showed that what Gray can do, he can do better, as the Hull fullback wriggled his way through he smallest of gaps between Langley and Mørk and, despite Pickup's best efforts, crossed to give the Lyons the lead yet again. Yet the game swung yet again on 53 minutes, Cameron ghosting past Albert and steaming over the try line. Gray's boot gave the Crusaders another slender 2 point lead, but a silly penalty allowed Lyon to level the scores.
In the remaining 22 minutes no more tries were scored, as both teams started to tire and lose momentum in attack, whilst staying as solid as ever in defence. A couple of players started to pick up knocks, including Loganathan, Mørk and Renouf. The deadlock was broken with just under 12 minutes left, when the Crusaders gave away another penalty and Jamie Lyon's deadly boot punished them again, but with just 8 minutes to go, Micky Higham decided to pick a fight with Crampton and aswell as coming off worse, found himself sitting out the rest of the game. Gray scored his 4th goal from his 5th attempt and the scores were level again.
So it went into the final 5 minutes. One team would go on to score another penalty to win it. I'm not going to spoil it for you....