Late penalty gives Shannon local derby success
The local rugby derby, more popularly known as the “battle of the bridge”, took place at Easton Park in Foxton last Saturday. Shannon won narrowly in the final minute of the game with a late penalty.
Foxton opened the scoring with an early penalty to take the lead by 3-0.
Shannon soon equalled with a penalty of their own and Foxton then applied the pressure by scoring an opportunistic try to take the lead again.
Shannon settled down with more competitiveness. However, Foxton gained another penalty to stretch their lead to 13-3 at halftime.
Foxton coach Tom Zimmerman said, “We need to up the tempo come scrum time. Also, we know the back corner — they’re going to go there, so keep them out.
“Let’s take this to another level and get our scrum going quicker. Their scrum is only going for four seconds. We need to make ours eight and adjust the attitude,” Zimmerman said.
Shannon coach Yhan Franks said, “We need to get in the right area of the field and capitalise on retaining possession. Let’s stop making silly errors by letting Foxton into the game.
“Hopefully in the second half, we’ll be able to use the wind and sun to our advantage by playing to the corners,” Franks said.
After the break, Shannon fought back, scoring an early try to make the score 13-10. Foxton broke Shannon’s defence at times but the visitors held their line.
Shannon were awarded a penalty midway through the second half, levelling the score at 13-13.
In the dying stages, Foxton gave away a kickable penalty which Shannon duly kicked to give them the 16-13 victory.
The curtain-raiser was won by Foxton B with a score of 29-26 over Shannon B.