Knox Edged Out In Thriller

Knox hosted near neighbours, Preston Lodge, on Saturday morning. PL have been
posting some big wins this season, so Knox knew they needed to work harder on
what they have been coached to take a step up.

Straight from kick off, PL looked to intimidate their local rivals, but Knox
held firm. PL scrummaged strongly to start with and it looked like a few of our
lads were still to wake up. Just as it looked like Knox's defence had held out,
PL caught the home team short of numbers and got the ball out wide for the first
score.

Knox had barely touched the ball at this point and the coaches were worried the
boys would wilt. But they pulled together and straight from the kick off put
pressure on PL who dropped the ball. Booth hacked it on and after a couple of
quick rucks, Connell broke clear with Dewar free outside him, but chose to cut
back inside. Knox won the ruck though and this time Connell used the overlap to
put Green through for a try in the corner which was brilliantly converted by
Cunningham.

PL looked shocked at how easily Knox had come back and it was game on. Once
again PL edged their way up the park with strong running from their backs and
muscular support from their pack. Knox held firm though and cleared their lines
a couple of times. Now it was Knox in attack, but from a good line out in PLs
22, the ball was fumbled and the chance was gone to take the lead.

Deep in their own half, PL's stand off put a speculative chip through which
caught out the Knox defence. The ball was snaffled up by their pacy full back
who got passed some weak tackles to get PL back in the lead. And it got worse
for Knox shortly after, as some very weak tackling let the same player through
for another quick score.

This was now a big test for Knox. Would they crumple or pull together as a team?

It was the latter and from a solid scrum, the ball fizzed out from Wright to
Cunningham who ran straight at his opposite man and popped a pass perfectly to
James Dewar who had come in from the blindside wing and screeched through the PL
back line for a cracker. This shook PL who were suddenly worried by how easily
Knox had cut through them with a only a couple of passes and set up an exciting
second half.

Half time: Knox 14 Preston Lodge 19

The second half started evenly with both teams attacking in multi phase rugby
which made the game a great one to watch for the big crowd that had turned up.
Suddenly, Dewar got the ball in a bit of space and was away. It looked like he
was clear, but he slowed and was caught although PL knocked the ball onion the
tackle. From the scrum, Duke picked up and ran straight for the line then popped
to Wright looping round who was stopped right on the line. The ball was recycled
though and Thomson burrowed over from inches to get Knox back on level terms.
Unfortunately, the conversion was missed so the game was tied and balanced on a
knife edge.

Shortly after the kick off, Dewar got the ball, bobbed and weaved past
defenders, but was dragged down by the last man. PL then came back and
maintained pressure. With 5 minutes to go they burst over for a try. Knox were
tiring, but still giving as good as they got. However, another try quickly
followed for PL to pull away with only 2 minutes on the clock.

Knox were down, but not out. Straight from the kick off, Knox piled the pressure
on and turned over ball at a ruck. A couple of quick passes and Ewan Jack got
the ball in space. He put his head down, broke a couple of tackles and stormed
over in the corner for the game's final score.

Full time: Knox 24 Preston Lodge 31

An absolute belter of a game and a real step up in effort and team work by
Knox over previous weeks. The boys rucking had improved immensely and just a few
slack tackles let PL scrape the win. Next week it's Royal High, but as long as
the boys put in a similar effort and just a bit better tackling will see them
take a big scalp.