Umee Gibraltar Rugby Championship Round 4

Sovereign Rock Scorpions 12 - 15 IBEX Buccaneers

Along with the weather, we saw a change in the Scorpions team today. Their back line had more shape, fly half Milton kicked intelligently into space and territory, and in the forwards, Milward along with Tonbridge were a constant thorn in the Buccaneers attack. Although the Scorpions had some early pressure, it was a game of cat and mouse for much of the first quarter with neither side taking control.

The Buccaneers scrum was causing issues in the tight, but when the Scorpions got the ball out wide, they looked threatening, and it was only a great scramble defence that stopped a promising break. It was almost on the half hour before the first score and, ironically, it came from a Buccaneers mistake as they tried to run the ball out of defence. A loose pass was picked up by Cook just inside the Buccaneers half and, evading the covering tackle, he romped in under the posts. Despite the Buccaneers efforts and their forward muscle, they couldn’t get on the scoreboard before half time and 7-0 in favour of the Scorpions was a well-earned lead.

The Buccaneers seemed to get their second wind after the break but despite some early pressure, the Scorpions defence held out and some stalwart jackalling from Millward rescued them on more than one occasion. The Buccaneers were keeping the ball tight, exerting their forward dominance with a series of rolling mauls and making ground. It was only a matter of time before the pressure would tell and when the ball was fed to Hanlin, he showed a lovely feint, created a gap and was through for the levelling score. This made Hanlin the oldest player to ever score in the Gibraltar Rugby Championship at 54-years-old.

With the advantage of the breeze, Jones was keeping the ball in the Scorpions 22 with great positional kicking and from another Buccaneers power play, Loddo crashed over to give them the lead. It looked like the Buccaneers were beginning to take control, but a great break from the Scorpions turned the tables and a scoring opportunity was only stopped by a try-saving tackle from Foster.

With their tails up they stayed in the Buccaneers 22 and following another quick handling move the ball was fed wide to Ignacio who this time evaded the covering tackles to score in the corner. All square going into the last few minutes of the game. Knowing where they had to play the game, Jones kicked the Buccaneers into the Scorpions 22 and when they won a penalty, calmly slotted the kick to seal the game by the narrowest of margins. Relief for the Buccaneers but a bitter blow for the Scorpions and their losing bonus point will be small consolation.

Spirit of the Rock Man of the Match

Man of the Match was awarded to Ben Jones for his control of the match at fly-half and his brilliant kicking, securing the winning points for the Buccaneers.