Park House FC

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14 February 2004
Shooters Hill 17 - Park House 27

Park House avenged their early season loss to Shooters Hill with a hard fought away win to keep themselves at the top of Kent 2.

After losing the toss, Park found themselves playing down the slope in the first half. The game started at a very quick pace, with Shooters Hill driving up through the middle. Park showed their intentions with some strong tackling around the fringes, and after ten minutes some strong tackling in midfield by Dave Monk forced a spill which Chris Metcalf scooped up to race clear and open the scoring. The conversion was missed to leave the score 5-0.

The game continued in same vein with Park using the slope to good effect and playing the game in Shooters Hill territory. The physical nature of the game led to plenty of spilled ball, and Shooters Hill began to assert superiority in the ensuing scrums. However, good Park House work in defence meant that the Shooters Hill runners were becoming increasingly isolated and when a pass went to floor Metcalf was quickest to react and fly hacked the ball through to collect himself and score his second try. Richard Russ converted to take the score to 14-0.

Park continued to make good use of the slope and after a well worked backs move left the Shooters Hill back spectators once again as Russ went through the middle to score under the posts, converted himself to take the score to 19-0. After such a frantic start the game fizzled out a little for Park to go into half time 19-0 up.

The second half was always going to be more of a struggle for Park as they played up the slope, especially with the Shooters Hill pack continuing their domination in the scrum. Relentless Shooters Hill pressure at the Park House line led to a penalty. Shooters Hill chose the scrum and after it being reset a few times eventually drove over for a push over try. 19-5.

Shooter Hill continued to apply the pressure and were eventually rewarded with a second pushover try. However as the half went on, Shooters Hill began to lose some of their shape and Park managed to get back into the game. When Geoff Willis dummied from the base of a ruck at the Shooters Hill 22 and went over for a beautiful solo try it was effectively game over. Shooters Hill got a further try when their flanker broke away to take the score to 24-17 but with 5 minutes to go, a long range Russ penalty took the score to 27-17 and sealed the win for Park