St Albans away

St Albans 13 TABARD 18 – London League 2 NW

Tabard’s stand off Jack Reilly slotted two long penalty goals late in the second half to give Tabard victory over St Albans on Saturday, by 18 points to 13. Tabard thus retain their unbeaten record so far this season.

The game promised much with both teams eager to win but in the end the game never got going, with neither side putting together any good periods of flowing rugby and far too many stoppages from infringements. However, Tabard started the stronger side and were definitely on top in the set scrums and looked as though they may put together a big score. To this end they went ahead after 11 minutes with a try by wing Tom Woodhead, after a move he had started with a probing kick ahead. St Albans were caught in possession and the ball was spilled backwards for Woodhead to pounce for a touchdown in the corner.

For a while Tabard looked on top, taking two St Albans line outs as well as their scrum superiority but St Albans rallied and started come back at Tabard then, almost against the run of play, Tabard scored again. This time centre Gerald Arasa made the initial ground before second row Darren Kidd completed the move by breaking through five St Albans defenders for a great try which Reilly converted to put Tabard 12 points ahead. Then, with Tabard looking for fluidity in their backs, St Albans centre Dickinson intercepted a slightly slow pass and ran in to score under the posts giving fullback Kentish an easy conversion, thus the teams turned round with Tabard ahead by 12 points to 7.

After the turnaround Kentish slotted over a penalty for St Albans before the game degenerated into even more of a stop-start affair and the game began to look as if it could go either way. With 15 minutes to go Kentish put St Albans ahead by one point with a penalty goal. With 10 minutes to go Reilly took his first long shot at goal after Tabard were awarded a penalty for offside and the goal was converted to put Tabard ahead again. With 4 minutes to go St Albans looked to take the game but the penalty kick from Kentish was wide by the narrowest of margins. Reilly then got his second long penalty and the game was almost won for Tabard although St Albans put in a late flurry for the converted try now needed but it was to no avail and Tabard kept their lead, to win by 18 points to 13.

Team: Roberts, Woodhead, Murphy K, Arasa, O’Neill, Reilly, Murphy, Lake (Bill), Colette, Lake (Wilf), Kidd, O’Connor, Hall, Settle and Stoba.