THE Academy started with a bang.

The forwards made several telling runs into the heart of the Warriors defence and when the opportunity came the backs took full advantage of some poor tackling in the midfield to score a try by Lewis Paterson under the posts, which Tony Yapp had no problem converting for a 7-0 advantage.

Within minutes though the All Blacks extended their lead to 10-0 with a Yapp penalty for an infringement by a Warriors forward.

It was only fantastic defence from all 15 of the Academy players that denied the Warriors a score. The back row combination of Ben Collings, Mike Rawlings and Tom Rawlings (capt) caused the warriors problems from the start and as a forward pack also disrupted several of the Warriors lineout plays. After 17 minutes, second row John Brandling-Harris had to leave the field with an injury to his back. Replacement lock James Hanks came on for his first game in ten months due to a knee injury. He immediately made an impact and the Academy managed to make it to half time without their line being breached.

The second half saw two changes to the side, In the backs Ian Wilson replaced Ben Turner at 9, who then moved to 15 in replace of the Martin Kneebone. In the forwards Tony Roques came on to replace Tom Rawlings.

Warriors seemed to up their game and were rewarded within 10 minutes of the restart when after several phases of play they opened up the home defence wide out on the right flank to see Doug Sanft cross for a try which Ross Laidlaw converted to make the score 10-7 to the All Blacks. Again though from the kick off, the Warriors were again straight onto the attack and after a couple of soft penalties found themselves in the All Blacks 22 again. To their credit, they kept the ball very well and were extremely patient. They were rewarded with an unconverted try after some very powerful forward charges.

Unfortunately for the All Blacks, during this period they lost openside flanker Tony Roques to the sin bin for a technical offence at the breakdown.

The Academy enjoyed a spell of pressure , but and not for the first time in the second half gave the ball back to the Warriors after being turned over at the breakdown and conceding a penalty.

The last 20 minutes saw both sides make several changes, eight more in total for the All Blacks. Jason Bolt, Dan Manns and Tom Hurdwell came into the front row, James Hanks had enjoyed 30 minutes of rugby and was replaced. Lloyd Duke came into the back row, Josh Coles, Dan Jasper, Shaun Fayter and Adam Garner came on in the backs.