The third match of the tour against St. Michaels University School, Victoria resulted in the
High retaining the Mike Walsh Cup with a 27-22 victory.

The first half was played against a very strong wind, although SMUS did not use the wind to
its' full advantage. The first score came from a double charge down. Sam Greenock blocked the
SMUS stand off's clearance with his face and this was then followed up by David Forrest using
his hands to charge down the ball from the full back who had gathered Sam's attempt. David
then proceeded to fall over the line to register the first score of the day. Sam duly
converted. Rory Taylor then pulled off a try saving tackle in the corner. A few moments later
SMUS had a chance to get back in the game with a penalty. The kick struck the post and
Richard Murray was quickest to react, but couldn't get the ball away to safety. Ramesh was  
sin binned for at the resulting ruck. SMUS took a quick tap and Rory Taylor again put in a
great tackle. High School were then able to move up to the other end of the pitch and were
awarded a penalty which Sam put over for a 10-0 lead after 30 minutes. Soon after this, Rory
Taylor made a break and scored with Sam adding the extras. SMUS came straight back into the
game when some poor tackling allowed them to sneak over the try line to make the half time
score 17-7 to High School.

The turn around should have enabled High School to dictate the play by using the wind but
again poor tackling resulted in SMUS scoring two quick unconverted tries to make the score 17-
17. Sam Greenock then stepped up to put the High School 20-17 with an impressive penalty kick
from just short of the 10 yard line. SMUS pressed hard on the High School try line and looked
like scoring until that man, Rory Taylor plucked the ball out of the air for an interception
and ran 90 yards to touch down beneath the posts. Sam again converted. With 10 minutes to go
SMUS scored a good try out wide after High School had all been sucked in at the breakdown.
The conversion was missed leaving the score 27-22. The game was in the balance right down to
the end. Ben Filmer and Hamish Livingston made some important tackles which helped us stay in
the right parts of the field and it was High School who were in the ascendancy when the
referee, who had an excellent game, blew for full time.

Played 3 Won 3. We now move back to Vancouver tomorrow morning to meet our hosts Handsworth
for our final game on Thursday.

This article was posted on 7-Apr-2010, 06:05 by Hugh Barrow.