04/04/2009 Hunters Hill Clean Sweep Epping

Hunters Hill Rugby could not have made a better start to the season with Wins in all 5 grades played at Boronia Park.

A big crowd turned out to watch the new look Hillies take on Epping in what was an exciting day of Rugby.

Hunters Hill seemed better adapted to the new game laws with a free flowing and entertaining style of Rugby played throughout all the grades.

The First grade Game started with Hillies getting good clean ball and the backs straight away started attacking with the ball going wide early. It was not long before Epping was on the back foot and fly half Dave Marshall threw a lovely dummy pass to see his opposite number 10 let him step inside allowing him a short run to score a try under the posts. 
The Epping pack was much bigger than Hillies and the forwards had to work very hard to hold their own set plays. With tight five players Dave Weston  Jules Arnt and Matt Macrea doing a lot of clean out work for the Hillies and managing to get enough good ball to give the backs the opportunity to use the pace of their outside backs Ben Bates  La La and Matt Lane to make some solid gains.

The Second try came after Hillies put pressure by attacking the Epping line. When a clearing kick by the Epping 10 got charged down, Hillies half back Stuart Woodbridge managed to gather the ball over the line for an easy try.

The First grade team had the added pressure on them knowing that all 4 grade before them had won their games. It has been many years since the club has had a clean sweep so with a 12  to nil half time score line and the wind now in their face the requirements for defence were critical,

The Second half was all about defence as Epping kept launching their players in waves of attack. No matter what they tried  Flankers Luke Maclennan and Alex Vertoudakis were there to cover defend,
Epping finally scored a  try with the forwards barging over the line and scoring what would be their only point for the match.

At 12-5 Hillies had to defend hard as Epping sniffed a possible victory. With 5 minutes to go Hillies Props Weston and  Van Orshot combined in a Soccer style move dribbling the  ball to within 5 metres of the line  where half back Woodbridge out ran the props to pick the ball up to score the final try.

Final Score Hunters Hill 17 Defeated Epping 5.
In the lower grades results were 2nd Grade HH 29 Epping 15, 3rd Grade HH 17 Epping 3, 4th Grade HH 52 Epping 10. 5th Grade HH 12 Epping 10.

Next game is away playing Hills on the 18th April.