Tor were at home for this league fixture a week after a heavy defeat away with a weakened team at Walcot OB. However the lack of travelling demands meant that TOR were flushed with players. With the visitors high in the league a hard game was anticipated. Almost from the kick off TOR scored when openside Henry Bailey collected a loose ball and scurried 35m through several tackles to score a fine individual try under the posts. TOR forwards bouyed by an early lead created lots of possession for the backs to run. Old Reds with their experienced forwards showed their quality and managed to make better use of their possession scoring 2 tries in the first half. Sound performances from some of the younger players like scrum half Ben Hagg and Centre John White. With Tor winning most scrums and Old Reds winning most lineouts, the encounter was pretty even. Half time came slightly early with a serious ankle injury to an Old Reds prop, requiring an ambulance on to the pitch. Tor were trailing 5-12 at the extended half time. This gave Captain Dumiso Ncube time to reorganise his team. Wisely he got rid of some of the old cart horses like Dykes and brought on younger colts, like Tom Payne.
In the second half the youth and speed started to tell on Old Reds with continued pressure from the Tor backrow tackling everything that moved. When the backs distributed the ball wide, wing Mark Cinicola scored 2 tries in quick succession to take the lead with 20 minutes to go. Fly half Matt Coley, converted 1. Old Reds then threw all they had at the Tor line, but hard defensive tackling by all players kept the them out. the pressure of the tackling forced a drop ball and full back Jason Hurford kicked ahead and fine tackiling caused another loose ball, followed by fine interplay with forwards and backs resulting in a final try for man of the match Bailey. This was a really spirited team performance from a mostly youthful side with a sprinkling of experienced players. All this team needs is continued availability of all players to away games as well as Home.
Following on from their 50-0 victory at Lowerside Park earlier in the season, Tor travelled to Wells knowing that another win would mean a 100% record for the club over their bitter rivals this season with five victories out of five.
The anticipation leading upto local derbies is always high and this one was to be no different with opposing Captain's Tommy Corns and Andy Webb playing psychological mind games with each other via the medium of social networking sites in the days leading upto the match. These tactics seemed to spur Tor onto a bright start and with the inspirational words from skipper Webb quoting Al Pacino's "Inches" speech from "Any Given Sunday" ringing in their ears victory looked certain at first.
Fly half Matt Slade spured them into life with some brisk, positive runs and authoritative leadership in the backs to create a number of gaps for inside centre John White to keep hammering through. It was indeed Slade who spotted winger James Austwick indide his own half with space and after recieving the pass ha ran the length of the pitch to score the first try of the day.
Almost immediately after Austwick was to double his tally in similar fashion indicating that the visitorss could run up another cricket score against their hosts. It was at this point though that Wells changed tact, the ball was kept on the floor and the forwards from both sides came into the game with force.
Tor's 52.5 stone front row of Webb, Barry Morgan and ex-Wells player Merv Watch were keen to show how to use thier weight effectively and battered away with stampeding, penetrative runs, Webb knocking over upto eight players with determination to make yards for his team.
The half finished in scrappy fashion at 15-3 to Tor with Wells registering a penalty in an attempt to claw their was back into the game. The injured Dan Beal was replaced by Aaron Marshfield who slotted in at lock pushing Alex Payne into the back row. This move inspired Payne as he took the game by the scruff of the neck and bossed the oppositions forwards throughout the second half.
There was a 10 minute period where the visitors seemed to lack concentration and some weak tackling led to Wells nicking a try of their own but Tor replied in the best possible way and good work by scrum half Charlie Hare and Slade set up winger Mark Cinicola to rapidly score in the corner and put the game out of Wells reach and see themselves move upto third in Somerset 2 south.
The game finished 20-5 to Tor and was and entertaining encounter for the 100 or so supporters who turned out to witness yet another hard fought derby.
This Saturday 14th March Tor United host Somerton at Lowerside Park, Kick-Off 2.30pm.