Ivel entertained Somerton who have had a good start to the season. But with several players dropping out at lunch time, Ivel had to do some serious chasing to make a squad. At kick off 18 players had been gathered together.

With a debutant, in the form of Matt, playing at scrum half, Darren Leary making a comeback after a break of several years away and Simon Jones also returning the back line looked strong.

For the first game this season Ivel started strong with the ball going through the backs causing all sorts of problems for Somerton’s defence. This made Somerton’s forwards play their game, using pick and go as their main offence, the smaller Ivel forwards were moved around the field. The backs were dragged in; Somerton took possession of the ball, passed it out and managed a score. Ivel didn’t drop their heads and kept trying to play a wide game. But from a quick tap penalty Ivel didn’t react and Somerton scored again. Now Ivel had to play and they saw the hard work pay off. Matt Egan picked up from the back of the scrum and went on a run from the 22 to score under the posts.

Somerton came back and scored again, also adding a penalty. Ivel came back again with some very slick hands, allowing Tom Lane to score in the corner.

At half time Coach Martin Cole made some changes with veterans Colin Hendrie and Roger “Popeye” Law bolstering the pack. This made for a much more even second half, but Somerton scored two further tries from Ivel mistakes and, despite the changes to the home squad, Ivel could not cross the visitor’s line.

Final Score 34-12