CRC Condors 14 Lincoln Park RFC D2 52

A week after tasting defeat, Park responded in the manner any coach would demand, putting more than fifty points on Condors in a performance built on the back of a rampant back row. And yet the most telling detail of the afternoon may be this: a team can rack up 52 points and still walk off sensing there was more in the tank. That, as much as the scoreline itself, is the clearest evidence yet of the progress this Park side is making.

A fast start disrupted

The platform was laid early, Bricteux touching down after just twelve minutes, the first of three on the day, finishing off a break started by Jahner. It set the tone for a first quarter in which Park's back row simply could not be stopped, with flankers Laux and Bricteux combining for five tries between them over the course of the afternoon and involved in the buildup to several more besides. Being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time is fast becoming the calling card of that pairing.

Two tries from Laux in that opening spell had Park 19-0 to the good by the end of the first quarter, a lead that threatened to run away from Condors entirely. But rugby has a habit of punishing complacency, and Park stuttered just as the game looked to be running away, Condors finding a try of their own during a spell with Jahner in the sin bin for what was adjudged a no-wrap tackle taken too low.

Rhythm restored after the break

Whatever wobble crept in before half-time, it did not survive the interval. Park found their rhythm again in the second half and set about reasserting the dominance of the first quarter. Laux, having done the finishing early on, turned provider himself to set up Glavin, while his fellow second-row partner Driscoll added a try of his own from short range as Park's forwards took an ever-tightening grip on the contest. Bricteux was not finished either, adding two further tries to the one he had opened the scoring with, taking his own personal tally to three for the afternoon.

The finishing touches

Finnegan rounded out the scoring late on, finishing wide on the right wing for a score that, for once, belonged to the backs rather than the forwards who had so thoroughly dominated the day. The kicking tee, meanwhile, was in the hands of Jonny Wilkinson, running the show from scrumhalf and making his full debut after a substitute's cameo the week before. His conversions kept ticking over with real composure for a player so new to the shirt. 

The verdict

Not a flawless performance — the sin-bin lapse and the mid-game stutter will be picked over at training — but this was nonetheless another afternoon that speaks to the growing confidence coursing through this Park side. To put more than fifty points on a side and still feel there was another gear available is precisely the position a coach wants his team in as the season progresses. Whatever wobbles remain to be ironed out, this is a team that keeps finding new ways to win, and finding them more emphatically each time.