Roseland 6 Veor 22
Match report by T.O.G. Corners Nick Sylvester
Roseland’s run of defeats against Veor continued in last Saturday’s lunchtime fixture in cold but dry conditions with a keen cross wind. Inevitably the “going” was heavy -rugby’s equivalent to The Cheltenham Festival earlier in the week – such that it was never likely to be good for running rugby.
Playing with the slope in the first half, the home side were unable to gain any territorial advantage in the early exchanges with neither side threatening their opposition try lines. In fact, aside from a Veor missed penalty attempt, there was nearly half an hour gone before Veor scored the opening points with a try in the top right hand corner which was impressively converted. Following on, Roseland started to make more of an impression, with Joe Davidson to the fore charging into the Veor 22 from which Matt Eddy marginally missed to convert the ensuing penalty. So at half time Roseland trailed by 0-7.
Matt Eddy slotted a more straightforward penalty early in the second half which was soon answered by a second Veor try from a tap penalty to make it 3-12. Eddy added an excellent long range penalty on 56 minutes to bring Roseland back to within one score. However by this time the experienced Veor pack had gained an ascendency at the line out and were more than holding their own at the set scrum, something that deserved credit especially since the visitors were without replacements to call upon.
Further Veor tries followed after 64 and 70 minutes to kill game off in terms of result although it was in the final ten minutes that Roseland had their best spell although never managed to breach the determined Veor defence.
This weekend Roseland entertain Illogan Park in a fixture that is likely to have a significant bearing upon the final league positions. Having won the away fixture a few weeks ago, a home win would go a long way towards Roseland finishing fifth in the league albeit that all sides still have four or more fixtures to fulfil.