3rd Nov 2007 - Royal Bank Scotland 7 - Beccehamian 45 Quinn exploits the blind to run rings round the Royals Beccs Ex A team went over to RBS for a friendly fixture to celebrate the opening of RBS's new club facilities and enjoyed another fine win with some flowing and fast rugby. The Ex A’s fielding a side mixed with youth and experience ran in 7 tries in total with the majority coming from range and demonstrated how to keep the ball alive in open play and through good support running. It didn’t take long for Beccs to open their account, with only 3 minutes on the clock, the ball was spun wide to the right on the RBS 10M line, winger Tim Mole dummied his opposite number and went through the inside gap, drawing the last defender he released Dean Borg to canter in from the RBS 22M line. Carl Quinn added the conversion. RBS took the game to Beccs in the opening minutes through their forwards and continued to try to do this throughout the game. However the Beccs pack proved to be the more mobile and dynamic with ball in hand. This tone was set after 10 minutes of play when Craig Baxter broke from a maul and charged at the RBS backs from the half-way. Craig taking the initial RBS back row tackle passed to Jeff Brown who was making a welcome return to playing from a year off, he took play into the 22 before being downed by the RBS defence. Passing out of the final tackle Jeff off-loaded to Will Dan in great support who ran in for the second try of the game, 12-0 to Beccs. The next 20 minutes was stalemate with both sides playing in the centre of the park and defences and tackling taking over the order of play. Beccs then started to probe the blind-sides at line out and scrum and this brought handsome rewards throughout the game. Scrum half, Carl Quinn, made one of a number of breaks on the half hour from a scrum on the half way line but was stopped on the RBS 22M. The opportunity looked to have been lost as the support had virtually overrun him. The final pass to Ian Hawes coming up from full-back, resulted in him having to stop to catch it, however, his speed off the mark injected the pace back into the move and he went on to score near the posts, Quinn added the conversion.. The first half was rounded off in style with hooker Simon Spier, stealing a strike against the put-in, Number 8 Jeff Brown quickly broke blind and released Quinn from 40M out who sprinted through to score and then converted his try to make it 26-0 at the interval. The second half continued in a similar manner, after 12 minutes, from a scrum on the half-way, Quinn again exploited a large blind-side area and fed Tim Mole who took play a further 20M up field, unselfishly drawing the covering defenders he fed Quinn supporting him on the inside for him to nab his second try under the posts, which he again converted. RBS continued to press and enjoyed their best passage of play half way through the second half. For 5 minutes they pounded the Beccs try line. However, Beccs defence held firm and despite giving away a number of penalties and being dangerously close to conceding a penalty try absorbed the pressure and eventually cleared their line. Youngster and wing-forward Tom Roberts made a number of crucial tackles on the gain line to keep RBS out and he did this throughout the game. Having held out, play then progressed back up the field into the RBS 22. From an RBS scrum some 15M from their line the ball squirted out the side, open-side Tom Roberts reacted the quickest and snaffled the ball back towards Beccs, Quinn looking for his hat-trick sped towards the posts but was tackled just short, quick second phase ball released centre James Bavister who slid in to take the score up to 38 points. With 5 minutes to go and with RBS still playing hard and trying to get a consolation try, James Bavister intercepted an RBS pass deep into Beccs territory and was off to try to score from 70M out. Sprinting for all he was worth and trying to hold off the RBS cover he was eventually hauled down a few meters short of the line. Beccs support play was good and in numbers, a quick recycled ball was fed to Simon Spier who scored stretching for the line whilst being tackled near the posts, Quinn added his 5th and final conversion of the day. The last score of the match went to RBS with 2 minutes to go on the clock, and the conversion brought them a much deserved score. Final score 45-7 to Beccs.