20th October 2019 King’s Field
Result: Saxons 12 Crusaders 3
The first home match at Aldeburgh for the newly formed East Suffolk Saxons (comprised of players from Ipswich, Felixstowe and Aldeburgh) saw a well-deserved win for the home side. Given that they only came together to train for the first time in August, this was a composed performance.
The early encounters stayed close to the forwards with strong running and tackling. Once the Saxons took their coach’s advice by getting the ball out wider we saw the advantage of their fast, elusive runners.
As a development match, it consisted of four 15 minute periods. It wasn’t until the third of these that Saxons began to have the confidence to move the ball wider. Trailing from an early penalty and suffering a couple of injuries to key players, they were hanging on without imposing themselves. The spark came when a clearance kick was picked up on half way by Saxons’ full back, Manon Kinchin, who weaved her way past the whole Crusaders team to score in the corner.
Saxons then began to keep the ball moving resulting in an opening for the fly half to produce another sparkling run for a try under the posts which was converted.
The delight shown by the winners should give them confidence for the rest of the season.
Although this was the first Saxons game at Aldeburgh, there was a large, vocal crowd taking pleasure in an enjoyable afternoon’s rugby.