Billed as a clash of the titans, this was more of a knock-out. Jesus may have rallied in the latter stages, but this was a match controlled by John’s and marshalled from the back-foot by the Red Boys’s scrum-half and Varsity Sport’s man of the match, Ben Wilson.

Across the first half, the Jesuans’s discipline was horrendous. They rightly found themselves on the wrong end of a mounting penalty count. The tackling was weak, too.

A powerful catch and drive brought the first score after 20 minutes, but a few moments later number eight Hugo Kelly would brush off a number of high and flighty efforts to coast under the posts.

All the while, scrum-half Ben Wilson was pulling the strings: repeated box kicks made the yards which fly-half James Cliffe could not; excellent distribution got the backline moving, while a more than decent sidestep scythed apart an increasingly porous defence.

The Jesuans were not without their share of possession; yet, by choosing to take on inside channels, by refusing to put width on the ball, they often went nowhere. Add to that three of the simplest missed penalty kicks by outhalf Kouj Tambara and 19-3 at half-time was fair enough.

It could have been more, too; were it not for a tight call on a forward pass from Pete Stoval to Nick Michelmore, the Red Boys would have been out of sight.

Perhaps ruffled by his lack of success in front of the posts, a series of inspired plays from Tambara set the tone for a tumultuous second half.

Using the pace of full-back Dan Marron, who always looked a threat with ball in hand, the Jesuans marched towards the Red Boys’s try line to register a quick score. Game on.

Another defensive error though from the Jesus backline and Wilson was through in the corner to reinforce the deficit at 24-10.

Careless hands in the ruck again from Red Boys hooker Patrick Calvert saw the referee dig out a second yellow to give the Jesuans a man advantage; the forwards drove over from a quick tap-and-go and the deficit was just seven. The partisan crowd began to sense a way back.

It was only a sniff though as number eight Hugo Kelly put the game to bed with two quick tries to seal a deserved victory for John’s.