Colts win again

10 wins from 10 games this season and now at the halfway point in the Shield competition the Colts have put themselves in a prime position to reach the final.

Tops start strongly and great driving by the forwards enables the backs to take advantage with some really nice early handling skills for Tom Hart to score from outside centre within the first 4 minutes, the conversion drifts wide but a good start to open the score at 5-0.

Kings are confident though and make inroads themselves into the red zone but Tops defend strongly until the opposition fly half kicks through and a couple of bounces in the wrong direction for Tops enables the attacker to gather and score, conversion missed and its 5-5.

Very soon after Tops are again in the ascendancy and threatening the Kings line but Oz Martin is penalised for a marginal tip tackle and sent to the sin bin. The boys react well and keep the pressure on Kings enabling Ed Smale to intercept a Kings pass and run through to score under the posts, with the conversion easily secured the score moves to 12-5.

With Topsham looking strong with 14 or 15 players it doesn’t take long for the next score and Harry ‘Collision’ Collison breaks through the gain line to score under the posts again enabling an easy conversion for the first half to end at 19-5.

Unfortunately the team loses two players at half time (both half backs!) and the team has to rearrange and with two further yellows before the game ends the team inevitably loses some of its edge.

However the second half starts well for the boys and they continue to work really hard against a Kings side who are still up for the battle but Zac MacLellen is the next to see yellow for a puny offence of offside and this time Kings are determined to take advantage. Despite fantastic defensive work from Topsham the opposition finally manage to get the try they worked so hard for but miss the conversion and it’s 19-10.

A final yellow card for Ben Phillips, off his feet at a ruck I think, and the game fizzles out with Tops looking for a final chance to secure the bonus point on the last play but they fall just short.

A decent win secured in the first half with the forwards on song and great defensive work from the backs in the second half, overall the boys showed real desire to perform across the pitch when down to 14 players.