Milford Marlins U14s 16 v Stanley Rangers U14s 44
20.09.09

Stanley Rangers U14’s made an explosive start to this game and had put 12 points on the board before the home side Milford Marlins had touched the ball.  From the kick off fullback Conner Ballinger received the ball on his own goal line and ran the length of the pitch demonstrating great speed, balance and footwork to score the opening try.  From the re-start a series of powerful drives from the Stanley forwards created good field position allowing the backline to put together a neat passing move, Tom Mulhern was on hand to finish the move with a touchdown under the posts.  Despite having some possession Milford were unable to establish any foothold on the game, the combative Stanley defense contained the home side in their own half for the majority of the first period.  When in possession the Stanley pack continued to drive a wedge into the Marlins territory creating scoring opportunities at will and a excellent all round team performance was rewarded with a commanding  32 -4 half time lead.

A lack of concentration and some controversial refereeing decisions  in the second half allowed the home side to score three unanswered tries and eat into the Stanley lead, however Stanley regained their focus and composure and ran out comfortable 44 - 16 winners.

Jordan Sharp, Vinny Cross and Will Carlos gave dominant forward performances each rewarded with a touchdown, Tom Mulhern gave another impressive defensive show and scored again for a brace of tries in the game.  Matty Burman was devasting in both attack and defense  on one occasion driving nearly the whole Milford team for half of the pitch, but was pipped to the Man of the Match award, which went to Connor Ballinger who scored a hat trick.