LSA Shield XV come through toughest test so far.....

Saturday 13th October

by Matt Aristizabal

With six new players for London South Africa, and Reading turning up without a tight-head prop and asking for uncontested scrums, it was always going to be difficult to stick to any pre-ordained game plan. The match began scrappily with neither team keeping possession, but a good dummy from Matt Fendick set up Malcolm Mirfin for an 80 metre sprint down the right to score after 3 minutes, and Fendick converted to make it a promising 7-0 start for LSA. Reading immediately began come back into the game, and only some good slide defence managed to keep them out after two penalties near the line, but Reading eventually found the overlap going blind from a scrum to make it 7-7.

The game began to open up after this with back and forth action in the midfield but neither team created any real openings. Big hits were common as the forwards tried to make their mark on the game but it was a Mirfin tackle that seemed to have saved a certain try as the left wing looked to have a clear run to the line. Without the usual scrummaging to contend with, Reading’s open side flanker combined with his scrum half to create another overlap and a long pass found the right wing on 14 minutes to make it 12-7. But LSA’s quality began to show through as they upped their possession percentage and stayed in Reading territory for the rest of the half. Captain for the day Tiaan Visser took a hard knock to the head but continued almost until the break and was central to the growing LSA territorial advantage - although he admitted he couldn’t remember much of it

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After the break LSA began where they left off, but without their usual dominance in the scrum they were not enjoying the amount of control they were used to. Reading managed to get near the LSA posts from a scrum and after winning a penalty increased their lead to 15-7. LSA hit back immediately after a scrappy restart, with Johan Strydom going over on the left to make it 15-14. The kick-off was almost the last time LSA were in their own half and a break from Scott Johnston almost put Mirfin over for his second. When Reading failed to find touch from a penalty some good running from the back three and great decision making created the space for substitute Trevor Grundelingh to finish off a very good looking try, and Fendick’s conversion put LSA in the lead at 19-15 on 61 minutes.

The game became a bit more even in terms of possession but good defensive work meant that more points were never going to be added by Reading, and a Ryan King try with 8 minutes to go sealed the victory as Fendick’s conversion made it 26 -15. From the kick-off Nick Osman’s break looked to have created a try but the referee called play back for an earlier offence - and then strangely awarded the scrum to the South Africans. This decision seemed to inspire LSA as they upped the tempo against tired opposition and Mirfin almost went over again just as the whistle went for full time.

Speaking after the game, Bob Crooks was clearly pleased with the performance, and how well the squad is developing: “The impact of the subs in the second half turned the game and I’m delighted about it - we had a plan to use our subs at certain strategic points of the second half, but injury and an illness forced our hand. We came from behind without leaders and structure and showed good mental strength to win…Werner’s [Swanepoel] leadership in the second half was exceptional. We had six debutants today and we have a very professional system for bringing new players in and I’m really happy with how it’s working for us.”