Marist travelled to Rodillians for this vital promotion battle, and were rewarded with a well deserved 19-10 victory based on a solid first half defensive display, and their determination not to get drawn into a battle, despite constant provocation.

Marist won the toss, and played uphill and into the teeth of a biting wind, confident in their ability to defend in these conditions. However, the home team took an early lead when Marist were penalised at a ruck 30 metres out, and the kick was successful for a 3 – 0 scoreline after only 5 minutes play.

The game then settled down, with Marist looking dominant in the line out, and settled in the scrum, but they were struggling to break down the home defence, and were prone to the odd handling error in the difficult conditions. From one of these errors, Marist conceded a scrum within their 22, and then poor defending allowed Rodillians to score under the posts and covert to leave the score at 10 – 0.

Marist threatened to break through, with Archie Lamplugh having several good runs down the right wing. The home side twice had offenders sin binned and were looking to provoke the visitors, frequently making late tackles with Ian Vernon being the main target, but Marist kept their discipline and went into the half time break well pleased with the score line.

The second half started exactly as Marist would have wanted, as they exerted pressure immediately from the kick off, this led to a penalty which they kicked to the corner. The line out was duly won, and the Marist pack made repeated drives and finally fed Stuart Oades who was unstoppable from 5 yards out, and crossed for his third try in two weeks, this was duly converted by Ian Vernon to make the score 10 – 7.

Rodillians continued to concede penalties and again had a man in the bin, but Marist struggled to make serious headway, as they were finding it difficult to get the ball wide to their flanks, but they remained in control and were rarely threatened by the home side, as the Marist defence generally kept the ball safely in Rodillians territory.

Eventually, Marist were rewarded when again following sustained forward pressure, a gap was created for Rob Parker to cross the line with about fifteen minutes to play, this was again converted by Ian Vernon to make the score 10 – 14.

Marist continued to dominate territory and possession, and their disciplined performance continued to frustrate the home side. The game was made safe when a telling break from Ian Vernon and a well timed pass to the younger Vernon led to a try in the corner to make the score 10 – 19, to the unrestrained joy of the team and their travelling band of supporters.

This was a well earned victory, and was due reward for a mature and disciplined performance from the whole side, other positive notes were the return of Dave Beecroft after a lengthy absence, and the better organized open play by the pack who were well marshaled by Reece Walker.