Flying Start To The Season

The season opener saw Panthers travel to a slightly under strength Wath side. Confidence was high after early season training sessions had gone well and Panthers made a strong start , putting Wath under pressure from the off.

Wath's strong pack in particular lead to a bruising, physical encounter throughout but this was matched by good tactical kicking from Fly Half Ed Bygrave and hard ball carrying from the Panthers forwards, especially Harvey Sturman, Jake Wright and Sam Wass.

A penalty infringement by Wath on the edge of their 22 saw the first points put on the board by Ed Bygrave with less than 10 minutes gone.

The rest of the first half saw Wath firmly camped in their own half of the field. Any attempts to clear their lines were confidently dealt with by fullback Max Woolgar-Norton working in tandem with winger Will Pollard, both gaining yards beyond the gain line.

Panthers continually recycled the ball, stringing several phases together at a time. Skillful running by centres Ben Carly and Archie Taylor put Wath firmly on the back foot, stretching their defensive line. With gaps appearing Sam Wass was able to power over from short range to get the first try of the season with 20 minutes on the clock.

The rest of the first half saw more of the same. Relentless pressure from Panthers drew valiant defence from Wath. But something had to give and another penalty ensued. This time a tap and go led to a confident, physical carry from Jake Wright seeing him cross the whitewash from 10 metres out.
The successful conversion by Ed Bygrave from well out towards the far touchline saw the half time score at 15 - 0 to Panthers.

The start of the second half was far more competitive and saw Wath come out resurgent. Strong ball carrying by their forwards along with some penetrating back line play and tactical kicking of their own kept them much more in Panthers' half of the field.

This was aided and abetted by Panthers' losing a bit of their defensive shape, along with some missed tackles. With Wath camped in the opposition's 22 Panthers felt the pressure, making some poor decisions and struggling to execute an exit strategy.
But Wath were unable to turn the pressure into points as Panthers'defensive line held firm, noticeably thanks to several trade mark aggressive tackles made by Ben Carly.

The second half continued to ebb and flow up and down the field but Panthers still had a couple of big shots to fire. With 20 minutes gone, a penalty over towards the far touchline caught Wath cold as Ed Bygrave shaped to kick the ball into touch, then turned and fired a pin point accurate cross field kick, having seen Max Woolgar-Norton over on the opposite side. Max caught the ball cleanly to dot down unopposed.

And as the game entered its latter stages Panthers delivered the coup de grace. With the lineout functioning well all game, headed up by Saul Whitehead, a blind side peal saw Tom McGovern make a clean break from near the half way line. Showing his phenomenal pace, and decent footwork as well, he was able to bypass several defenders to score near the posts.

The extra points were added again by Ed Bygrave to finish off a commanding display.

With thanks to the Panthers players who stepped in to make up numbers for Wath, especially Joe Hipkiss who was a constant thorn in the side of his teammates all game long!

Final score, Wath 0, Panthers 27