The evening of Friday July-12 saw the Crusaders U17 “selects” team take-on the touring-group from Merchant-Taylors’ school, visiting from London, England.  Crusaders started strongly, with powerful hit-up plays, and slick-recycling through some solid rucking. Ben Robinson at scrum-half distributed sweetly, and put the backs in motion – “little” Harry-Hibbert played like a deranged-flanker – taking several crash-balls – which seemed to surprise the visitor’s defence – when the small #10 was so willing (and able) to burst through their initial tackles.

Cru took a sizeable early lead, with some efficient handling to find the gaps, then speeding through.  Liam-Popp scored with a fine long-distance effort, and Lomax-Lloyd powered-over from close-in, carrying what seemed to be the “whole” opposition-pack desperately clinging-on, trying to stop-him.  Justin Lowe was unlucky to have a sublimely-worked try ruled-out, just at the stroke of half-time, due to a double-movement.

But the visitors never gave-up, and came-back hard in the second-half, with a few tries of their-own, bringing the score-line to within 3-points.  This generated a resurgence in the Cru team – redoubling their efforts, to hit-back with a late score, to secure the win  – 34:24, at the end.

Post-game social was fun with the visitors – who voted Harry Hibbert as the man-of-the match.

Great job guys.