Tring 57 TABARD 10 – League
London 2 North
Tabard were
playing well against a strong Tring side and virtually scored to level the
scores at 17 points all when, instead they had a disastrous 15 minutes in which
Tring took the score from 17 points to 10 in their favour to 50 points to
10. Although Tabard rallied again after
this spell in the middle of the second half the game was gone and an injury
time try by Tring brought up the final losing score of 57 points to 10 against Tabard.
The Radlett
side are having a terrible season with myriad injuries forcing them to dig
deeper into their resources every week, just to pick up more injuries every outing. However, despite this and the margin of
defeat, Tabard can take many positives away from the game. The forwards held their own up front and
many players had outstanding performances although the best by far was centre
Mike Thomas whose powerful running looked like it may still pull the game back
Tabards way. Other fine performances
came from scrum half Francois Karstel and second row John Crocker.
Although
the sides looked fairly evenly matched Tring are a very experienced side and
always looked dangerous in attack. They
quickly opened the scoring with a five
minute try from scrum half Prescott, converted by Newton but Tabard then held
them well and mounted some good attacks
themselves although their only reward came after 20 minutes when centre Dan
Ashcroft slotted over a penalty. Tabard
then let themselves down slightly when they conceded
two tries in the dying minutes of the first half, one to Tring winger Howe and
the other to fullback Newton.
In the
second half it was Tabards turn to get in a quick score. This came from a line out deep in Tabard
territory. Crocker made the initial surge forward, stand off
Tom Smith then took on the move before passing to Thomas who powered through
the covering defence for a great try which Ashcroft converted. Tabard continued to press home and with an
overlap on the outside Smith could not just get his pass away and as play broke
down it signalled the disastrous period when Tring ran in tries from wing
Gregg, Prescott, Howe, number 8, Mowbray and prop Burke. Newton added four conversions.
Despite
this Tabard regained their composure and the final 15 minutes provided some
good hard rugby but no more scores came Tabards way and deep in injury time Tring’s stand off
Wilson completed the scoring.
Team: Hopcroft, Smith, Thomas, Ashcroft (Fleuren
60m), Nansoz, Smith, Karstel, Davey, Gates (Wilkinson 60m), Baker, Visser,
Crocker, Montagu (White 65m), Farr and Scott.
Next week
Tabard are at home to Welwyn, kick off at Cobden Hill,
Radlett at 2.15 pm.
On Sunday
Tabard under 17’s took revenge for Saturday by beating Tring, a side two
leagues above them, by 26 points to 19 and in the afternoon the Tabard Women
beat Vauxhall motors by 34 points to 15 in a friendly match.