Another brilliant day’s weather for rugby perhaps a little disappointed by the draw at Diss last week Civil Service were keen to put on a good show at home against Stevenage. There was certainly more chance of that with the referee allowing the game to flow and pick up momentum as it progressed. Civil Service pressed hard in the opening minutes forcing Stevenage back into their 22 and with some good driving play by the forwards the ball was spun wide for Morgs Cathcart to hit the try line out wide 5 -0. Stevenage took that as a signal to show what they had and bustled their way up into the Civil Service 22 and from a set scrum and with the disruption of the Civil Service scrum scored a good pushover try 5 7.Stevenage had a good period of play but wasted the ball allowing Civil Service to pick and drive with Capt Dan Somerville and Kent Hinton doing some sterling work. The try came with the continuing driving play gaining ground ending with Jayme Salmon scoring under the posts converted by Matt Easton 12 -7 after 30 mins. Civil Service turned up the pressure and started to dominate the period with Dan Somerville scoring after some quick passing 19 -7 it was all Civil Service pressure at this point but Stevenage seized the opportunity from a spilled ball and broke away to run two thirds of the pitch to score under the posts 19 -14 to show thy were still very much in the game 19 -14. Unperturbed Civil Service returned to the task and Darryl Gore made a classy break through shaking off the tackle to score just before halftime 24 -14. Second half started with Stevenage taking the game to Civil Service and was rewarded after 55 mins with a good try by their speedy winger who left alone ran round under the posts 24 -21. Civil Service were shaken into action realising the game was far from over and swung into action with a good period of play showing some good skills in passing and holding onto the ball leading up to Jayme Salmon scoring 31 -21. Aaron Campbell leading the way out of defence with a good jinking run supported by hard working flanker Steve Richardson. From a long kick into Stevenage 22 and stealing the lineout there was some clever inter passing leading to wide pass for Tom Sincock to score out wide 38 -21.Civil were dominating possession in this last period of play but Stevenage battled hard and made it as difficult as possible for Civil Service to relax. Wihan Grobler seized his opportunity to get back into scoring ways with a try into the closing minutes 45 -21. All over not for Stevenage with Civil Service having done the hard work with more good play into the Stevenage 22 as the ball was spun wide for a score, the ball was fumbled and the Stevenage winger snapped up the ball and said thank you very much as he sped off for the final score 45 28. At the final whistle Civil Service had a comprehensive win but Stevenage deserved the applause for putting up such good resistance.
Paul Tiller