Having expected a reasonable number of Black Rats to make themselves available, the Vets only started the game with 14 men, with the 15th man kindly offered to us by Old Sulains.

With the Old Boys playing up the hill, they would quickly find some rhythm to their game as several efficient phases produced a score of the highest quality in the corner after just two minutes, but were unable to add the extras.

The Old Boys continued to assert their far superior handling skills onto the game, with senior Black Rat Jamie Newton forcing the gain line several times. Debutant Mark Bishton, who played his last game for Old C’s over 20 years ago, acquitted himself well in the dynamic back row alongside Nick “froggy” Coleman and Paul Rees. The Trio would enable the outside backs to play with relative ease, as they linked effortlessly between forwards and backs. Scott Doel another debutant for the Black Rats orchestrated a fine move in midfield as he linked superbly with the excellent Bernie Matthews who then weighted his pass perfectly to produce a stunning score from the Blackrats Winger, his second of the match.

In the second quarter of the match the pendulum swung in the favour of Old Sulians, who began to pick and drive some phases and were finally rewarded after some tired black rats failed to fill the voids around the fringes, allowing Sulians to trail by a single score.

The Old Boys regrouped and launched a number of attacks in the Sulians half. The Blackrats pressurised to real effect through experienced locks of Alan Dixson and Leon Montgomery at the line out, denying the younger and taller locks of Sulians quality ball.
Jerry Coates remained a threat around the scrum as he bossed his opposite number to provide clean ball for Old C’s to run in their 3rd try of the match through hooker Paul Cooper, following a well worked move involving the proficient pairing of Tony Mcgauley and Wayne Miller. The conversion was well taken by Tony Mcgauley to lead by 17-5

Sulians recaptured some form to score under the posts again reducing the deficit to 5 points, but it was Old C’s who would on the very stroke of half time score a fine solo try through outside centre Neil Meade to lead by 22-12 after the first 40 minutes.

The 2nd half was to be a war of attrition as Sulians took advantage of their additional numbers from the touch line, and it would also see the introduction of Andy Gay onto the wing for the Black Rats.

From the kick off Sulians worked several moves to exploit the Black Rats defence, but were often pegged back by some fine defending by the Black Rats, no more so than from diminutive prop Eammon Mcgauley who worked tirelessly in both the tight and loose exchanges and stuck to the task at hand in preventing Sulians gathering any significant momentum. Sulians however would eventually breakdown the tiring Old C’s defence to trail by 5 points. However only moments later Sulians would fumble good ball in their half and see the ball ricochet of their players into the hands of a Black Rat to send flying Black Rat winger Andy Gay in under the posts to extend the lead once again to 10 points.

Old Sulians again responded well with another converted try to trail by just 3 points with 10 minutes to go. The Black Rats maintained their discipline and composure as the repelled any meaningful Sulians attack as they went in search of a winner. The fresh legs of Ben Mogg gave the Old C’s a platform to go forward and a neat peel off the line out saw moggy make some excellent metres. Old Sulians ultimately could not find a way through some staunch defending as well as their own handling errors prevented them denying the black rats a hard fought 5th Anniversary win.

The Rats also raised over £200.00 for their team mate Tony Mcgauley as his wife Ria undertakes treatment for Cancer. A big thankyou to all those that donated, we know it will be greatly received by Tony and Ria.