Wivvy 24 Sharks 36

Gordano made the long trip down to Wiveliscombe with the aim of remaining unbeaten all the way up to Christmas. However, Gordano were well aware of the difficulty of the task facing them, as they came up against a tough Wiveliscombe team who had only lost two home games so far this season. On top of this, Gordano were missing their charismatic and dashing young centre (Owen Abbott), who had been sidelined after demonstrating his innate heroic nature by bravely putting his body on the line against Winscombe the previous week. What an inspiration that man is.
Indeed, Wiveliscombe quickly displayed why they had such a formidable home record. Having won the toss, they opted to play with the slope, and they did so in expert fashion. Having kept Gordano pinned in the corner, their first try came from a kick through and an awful piece of refereeing. Kaine Southey clearly touched the ball down over his own try line. However, the ref adjudged that he had missed the ball, and so awarded the try to an opportunistic Wiveliscombe player. On top of this, Gordano then conceded a penalty for questioning the decision. This led to them finding themselves defending their own line straight from the restart. This set the tone for most of the second half, in which Gordano repeatedly buckled to a pedantic ref. In turn, Wiveliscombe were able to capitalise with a try from a driving mall.
Having finally achieved some sustained pressure, Gordano responded with a characteristic try which came from a line-break from Tom Arnall, who provided a deft offload to Lee Worgan, who ran in to continue his impressive try-scoring record.
Yet this proved to be only a momentary ray of light in Gordano’s first half. They soon found themselves to be at the whim of the ref’s whistle once more, but this time it cost them a yellow card for Marcus Stratton for not being back 10 meters from a penalty, followed by a yellow card for Andy Peterson for questioning the decision. This allowed Wiveliscombe to dominate the rest of the first half. They scored another driving maul to make it 24-7 at half time.
Despite this, Gordano felt that they would be able to comeback with the advantage provided by the slope in the second half. And they did so with impressive ruthlessness. After several phases of intense pressure, Joe Rowsell scored from a quickly taken penalty from short range. He also went on to have a fine game with the boot which allowed Gordano to continue to force Wiveliscombe backwards. On top of this, he made another break and looked sure to grab a second before he slipped in the mud. Luckily he was able to get the pass away to Josh Richards to slide in on the right hand side.
Kaine Southey then pikied a try off the forwards, who forced the Wiveliscombe scrum back over their own line. Gordano continued to turn the screw, and after several nicely worked phases, Jack Hendy hit a fantastic line and managed to find a gap wide enough to accommodate his ample frame before allowing gravity to do the rest. As well as being the try of the day, this gave Gordano the lead. But Gordano weren’t finished yet. Relentless in their attack, Gordano continued to go through the gears and soon ended up over the Wiveliscombe line again. It was Tom Arnall’s turn this time, who was in the right place at the right time yet again to crash over.
The game closed with a bit of a response from Wiveliscombe. But Gordano defended well as always, with Joe Harris making a number of trade mark big hits, before splitting his eyebrow open in the dying minutes. After making coach Ben Gilmore age by about five years in the first half, Gordano showed their true character in the second half and went on to win 36-24. If being a great team means being able to dig yourself out of a deep whole when it matters, then Gordano proved in this match why they deserve to be unbeaten at the top of the league. Special mention goes to the linesman, who was truly instrumental in the Gordano win.