Magpies edge 55 point thriller in monsoon conditions

Ipswich Magpies continued their winning run in Eastern Counties 1 South in a fiercely fought encounter at Chilton Fields in monsoon conditions against local Suffolk rivals Stowmarket.

Both teams had won their initial 2 games so a close game was envisaged and that is exactly the outcome with the Magpies winning by a point in the last 7 minutes in a game in which both teams shared 55 points.

It was the home side that started the brighter playing to the conditions well and forcing the visitors into several handling errors, and where rewarded with 2 well taken tries in the 6th and 20th minute of which the initial effort was converted to give the home side a clear 12 nil advantage.

Rather than going from bread to crumbs the Magpies raised their intensity playing much higher tempo rugby and were rewarded by 2 tries, one out wide by left wingman James Shipp expertly converted by Stand-Off Dewi Lllewelyn on 24 minutes and by industrious back rower Ollie Peacock on 38 minutes again converted by Llewelyn to give the visitors a 14pts to 12 lead.

Stowmarket however had the last say scoring a try just before the break to put the home side back in the lead by 3 points(14pts to 17).

Straight after the restart the Magpies had a disastrous passage of defence in which they missed 2 tackles and offloads and the Stowmarket attack expertly finished off the chance duly converting to extend their lead by 10 points, which given the conditions put the home side in a strong position to close the game down.

As the first half the Magpies then played with more patience and started building pressure and centre Joe Connors showed good evasion skills to beat 2 defenders to score to the left of the posts, Llewelyn continued his excellent kicking in difficult conditions to reduce the deficit to 3 points.

Possession and territory changed hands and defences cancelled each other out and Stowmarket elected to kick a penalty with 9 minutes left to leave the score at 27points to 21.

The Magpies showed great mental resilience knowing that they still had time to build pressure and the potential to score, which they duly did with 7 minutes remaining with Cameron Beaton finishing off a series of drives to line, Lllewelyn held his nerve to kick the conversion and maintain a 100% success rate with his goal kicking.

The frantic few minutes saw the Magpies hold firm in defence and force 2 penalties that alleviated further pressure to hold on to a well earned away bonus point try win.

Both teams deserve credit in playing a high level of rugby in challenging conditions with only 14 handling errors shared between the teams.
The Magpies victory was based on great discipline conceding only 7 penalties, and strong defensive and kick chase efforts.

Ipswich Magpies next play Clacton at Humber Doucy Lane @ 2.30pm on Saturday 9th October in the Suffolk Gold Cup round 1.