Hammersmith and Fulham 18 TABARD 9 – London League 2 North West

Tabard’s long run of wins came to a dramatic end on Saturday as a well drilled Hammersmith and Fulham side got the better of the Tabard defence in a crucial period in the first half and from this Tabard were never able to get completely on top and had to settle for a defeat by 18 points to nine.

Tabard were on top in the set scrums thanks to yet another top class performance by the tight forwards but, crucially and unusually, their line out proved to be the Achilles heel and this led to Hammersmith enjoying much more possession in the first half.

The game opened well for Tabard and they applied the early pressure, with centre Joe Cunningham nearly scoring but he was stopped short after a scintillating run. Tabard did reap some reward for their early pressure though when Hammersmith were caught lurking off side and Tabard’s stand off Jack Reilly converted the penalty to put Tabard ahead by three points.

Then Hammersmith had their good period. Their first score came from a line out close in when they caught the ball cleanly and drove over for their prop Campbell to claim the score. Hammersmith now enjoyed plenty of possession and the Tabard defence was sorely tested before Hammersmith’s stand off Weeks put his side further ahead with a simple penalty. This was not to be the end of Tabard’s defensive period however, as once again Hammersmith put together a co-ordinated attack, culminating with their fullback finally coming through, with exactly the right line of running, to touch down under the posts for the try which Weeks converted to put Hammersmith ahead by 15 points to 3.

Tabard now had to steady the ship and gradually they did this and took the game back to their opponents and narrowed the half time lead to just six points after Reilly converted two more penalties.

The second half was a much more daunting affair with Tabard at last beginning to enjoy some possession and mount some attacks of their own but although they came close to scoring they were always stopped short. After a seemingly interminable time in the Hammersmith half without reward Hammersmith eventually made a break from defence and unfortunately caught Tabard off side giving Weeks a kickable penalty to bring up the final score 18 points to nine against Tabard.

Team: Hopcroft, Roberts, Cunningham, Thomas, Davis (Austerberry 65m), Reilly, Murphy, Lake B, Davey (Collette 50m), Lake W, Kidd, O’Connor (Calnan 40m), O’Neill, Hall and Stoba.

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