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First home victory of the season for Vagas
NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Vagabonds hooker James Clarke dives over to land his sides penultimate try in Saturdays 29-5 win over Oswestry in South Lancashire and Cheshire Division Two. The win was Vagas first home success of the campaign
SURE-SPONSORED Vagabonds rewarded the Ballafletcher faithful with a first home win of the 2012-13 campaign, with a consummate 29-5 victory over Oswestry in South Lancs/Cheshire Division Two on Saturday.
The first priority for Vagas was to end a run of sluggish starts and put in a positive opening 20 minutes and from the kick-off it was the home side that was fastest out of the blocks.
A solid scrum in the centre of the field set the tone for some early pressure on the Oswestry defence and scrum-half Leigh Kennaugh made it count, sailing through a gap to go under the posts.
Stand-off Jonny Beckley converted and Vagas were 7-0 up with the game just a few minutes old.
Old habits die hard, though, and slipped tackles left Vagabonds scrambling to defend their own try line, just managing to keep the attack at bay and kick clear.
From the lineout the organised Oswestry forwards set up a rolling maul to come close and repeated the move from a second clearance kick, making no mistakes second time round to bring the score to 7-5.
The Manx side replied almost immediately, however, stringing a flow of phases together from the restart and throwing it wide, allowing centre Ross McCulloch to make the most of a re- aligning defensive line to score Vagas’ second, with Beckley converting.
With the wind in their sails, the home side kept the pressure on. With gaps appearing out wide, Kennaugh switched the direction of the attack as skipper Mark Howarth moved the ball out to lock Bryn Griffith to score, and with only 20 minutes gone Vagabonds found themselves 19-5 up and in the hunt for the fourth-try bonus point.
The flow of the game stalled, however, as an ankle injury to the Oswestry stand-off interrupted play.
From there - right through the last 10 minutes of the second half - the game slowed to a penalty-strewn stalemate, with both sides frustrated and missing chances to inject life back into the contest.
As the clock ticked down it was Vagabonds who broke the deadlock with an attack bringing them to within a metre of the Oswestry line.
Beckley spotted there was nobody home on the left flank and switched the attack to float a pass over the head of centre Mark McGreal into the arms of hooker James Clarke to score.
Vagas had the final say, as Beckley tapped a penalty in the Oswestry 22 to pop to speeding tighthead Kevin Birchall, who was going nowhere but the try line to leave the final score 29-5.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Saturday 18 May 2013
Today
Heavy rain
Temperature: 8 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: East
