Tigers 16 Akrotiri 3
On a hot sunny afternoon in early January the Joint Services League recommenced.
The Tigers having won their first four encounters were hoping for another win and the well drilled and coached RAF side were out to spoil this aspiration.
Early pressure from Akrotiri nearly realised points when an attempted drop goal just narrowly missed, and a penalty just after also missed, and it was 20 minutes before Tiger George Agathocleous stepped up and converted his first score to take the Tigers 3-0 up.
The very big heavy Akrotiri pack was hard to control, and their over exuberance in a scrum resulted in another penalty to the Tigers and George stepped up again increasing the Tigers lead to 6-0 and 25 minutes gone.
The match was a very fast and hard encounter and good moves by both teams were only narrowly stopped, and this end to end match was still wide open, and the Tigers were penalised for tackling a man without the ball, and on 30 minutes the Akrotiri No.10 duly slotted his chance and made the score Tigers 6 Akrotiri 3.
Akrotiri kept up the pressure and were trying hard for another score but a scrum on the Tigers 10 metre line was well defended and a great blindside break out by scrum half Kyle Kleyn and Dimitri Maratheftis made over 50 metres to relieve the pressure. However this was not enough and at the next scrum the big RAF pack drove through the Tigers this time, but again good Tiger defence kept them out. Great breaks by big Tiger centres Fidias Efthymiou and George Agathocleous kept causing the RAF all types of problems, and the Akrotiri side were penalised in their desperate defence for "going over the top" of a ruck, and although George missed this chance he did not on the next when young full back Jack Bilton was late tackled, he made sure of this penalty and so at half time the Tigers were leading now by 9 points to 3.
Changes were made to the back row to start the second half and old Tiger campaigner "Deano" replaced the young and improving Sotiris Ioannou at back row, and an early score was just what the Tigers needed, and this happened within the opening few minutes as winger Danny Humphreys kicked ahead for centre George Agathocleous to chase and catch and sprint 40 metres into the corner for a cracking try, which he duly converted as well, giving the Tigers a lead of 16 points to 3.
Penalties were awarded and missed by both sides, and in the last 15 minutes huge efforts were made by Akrotiri to get back into this game but fantastic defence by the Tigers who were adamant that this would not (and did not happen).Numerous rolling rucks and mauls by Akrotiri were kept out by some brilliant tackling and defence and the pride of the Paphos Tigers team.
Three more substitutes were made during the second half including 17 year old Cameron Carrington-Porter making his debut, and so another great win for Paphos and five wins out of five in the league for this triumphant team.
Nigel Jarvis Secretary PTRFC
Paphos Tigers are sponsored by M1 Lux Cyprus, Horizon Group & Mercato del Golfo.
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