The first game of the 2015-16 D2 season is in the books and White Plains RFC recorded an emphatic 45-5 victory against Landsdowne RFC.
After a frantic opening 10 minutes with both sides making unforced errors, White Plains settled and began to take control. With constant pressure at the break down our superior fitness and discipline made a real difference and it wasn’t long before White plains gained the rewards on the score board with tries and penalties.
As the first half continued, the White Plains pack increased their dominance in both the scrum, line out and in the loose as Mike Stivale lead the way with a man of the match performance for the forwards.
From this solid platform, the backs also started to flow effectively with Aiden Costello distributing well and Onye Onwukanjo consistently threatening to break across the gain-line to make space for the rest of the back line. Notably, Kadeem Chandrashekhar who took full advantage of our dominance with impressive skills that led him to score a try and ultimately recieve man of the match for his efforts.
Landsdowne kept the game alive scoring a well worked forwards try from a driven line out which brought the first half to a close with WPRFC leading 21-5.
In the second half, Landsdowne came out with all guns blazing but the White Plains defence and breakdown work kept them at bay as the team worked well together to regain control of the game.
From here White Plains dominance allowed us to score freely as we emptied the bench to add to what was a hard day at the office for a tough and committed Landsdowne side.
This was a great first result for our young “new look” side and was nothing more than the players deserved for their hard work and dedication in preseason. There will be bigger challenges to come, but the club could not ask for more this week.
