TABARD 15 London New Zealand 7 – London League North West 2.

Tabard may have won the league but on Saturday already relegated London New Zealand showed they still had some fire as they defended well against Tabard’s incessant attacks and the Radlett side had to be content with a 15 points to 7 victory.

In fairness to Tabard the league season had taken it’s toll and the side was not Tabard’s best line up but, as usual, the front five spearheaded the attack with the front row of the Lake twins, Bill and Wilf and James Davey proving far superior to their counterparts. This said Tabard also saw some fine running from their centres Mike Thomas and Joe Cunningham but the New Zealand defence held to keep Tabard at bay.

The opening rally belonged to Tabard but the New Zealanders fought back but neither side had any points on the board to show for their efforts and as the game went into the second quarter Tabard started to play well but again without reward. Virtually on half time Tabard’s pressure was finally rewarded when the New Zealanders strayed off side and scrum half Andy Murphy kicked the penalty so that Tabard went into the break with a three points to nil lead.

From the second half start the New Zealand ball taker fumbled and Tabard had a scrum close in. The ball came back cleanly, Cunningham made the half break and sent fullback Neil Hopcroft over in the corner for the try. Tabard now began to attack the opposition hard but they relaxed too much as they attacked and a slow pass out was intercepted by the New Zealand flanker Margan, who ran virtually the length of the pitch to score under the posts, giving fullback Francis an easy conversion. This put the game at a delicate stage with Tabard just one point ahead.

Both sides then played open rugby in an attempt to score and although the New Zealanders came close they were always stopped and any ensuing scrum was virtually guaranteed to give Tabard possession or the New Zealanders very bad ball indeed. It was mid-way through the half that Tabard eventually scored again. From a long penalty kick from stand off Tom Taylor-Davies Tabard had a line out close in. The ball was taken cleanly and Tabard drove for the line. Although the drive was stopped short, from the ensuing melee, Bill Lake picked up and powered over for the score which Taylor-Davies converted to give Tabard an eight point margin.

Both sides then continued to play open rugby but the game was out of reach of the New Zealanders and Tabard finished up the victors by 15 points to seven.

Team: Hopcroft, Davis, Thomas, Cunningham, Murphy K, Taylor-Davies, Murphy A, Lake B, Davey, Lake W (O’Neill 40m), Settle, Kidd, Calnan, Hall and Stoba.

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