TABARD 8 Letchworth 26 –
London League 2 North
Tabards
miserable season continued on Saturday when, despite looking like they could
pull a win out of the bag they lost control in the final five minutes and ended
up giving Letchworth a win over them by 26 points to 8.
To be fair
Letchworth were the better side at the start
of the game and Tabard found themselves defending hard although a good
break out of defence by wing Neil Hopcroft, which took him over 50 metres upfield, showed that Letchworth were vulnerable and Tabard
could get a good win. This was
reinforced in the seventeenth minute when in a rare foray into the Letchworth half Tabard gained a penalty
after Letchworth were caught handing in the ruck and flanker Dan Ashcroft
converted the penalty to give Tabard the
lead.
After 30
minutes Letchworth gained a reward for their persistence when they quickly ran
a free kick and second row Ghita was over in the
corner to put Letchworth 2 points up.
Then deep into first half injury time Tabards luck ran out again, this
time stand off Richard Woodard injured his knee as he cleared the ball and the kick was fielded by
Letchworth who were able to mount an attack resulting in a try in the corner
for centre Strauss which stand off Donald converted and the teams turned round
with Tabard losing by 12 points to three.
The second
half was almost a different game with Tabard taking the initiative and putting
pressure on Letchworth in all phases of the game, including winning some of
Letchworth’s tight ball. Tabard quickly
gained a reward for the good start with the best try of the game. Tabard attacked from a line out in their own
half and wing Mike Thomas made a scintillating break down the midfield and then
passed to scrum half Tom Smith in support who went over the line for a great try.
With just
four points to make up Tabard put in a good display of controlled rugby,
working their way up the field and attacking hard at every opportunity but
their efforts were unrewarded. Then
Tabard made a mistake. With under five
minutes to go, a Letchworth penalty attempt was fielded on the Tabard line and
Tabard, keen to get back into the attack, ran the ball but the move broke down
on the 22 metre line, Letchworth were there in numbers, turned the ball over
and passed along the
line for Stack to score in the corner and Strauss added the conversion. Then, to compound matters, Letchworth attacked
again and a drive near the Tabard line saw Ghita get
his second try and Strauss converted to
bring up the final disappointing score of 26 points to 8 against Tabard.
Team:- Karstel, Thomas, Irving,
Orchard, Hopcroft, Woodard (Nansoz 35m), Smith,
Baker, Gates, Davey (Visser
75m), Montagu, Crocker, Ashcroft, Stoba
and Perkins,
Next week
Tabard are away to Tring, kick off 2.15 pm.