Old Grammarians Vs Watford

Unfortunately early indiscipline led to a penalty for the home team and they kicked the points to take the lead 3 - 0. There was a clear contrast in styles, with Watford looking to recycle the ball and use their backs and the home team looking to use their forwards to dominate. On the odd occasions that the home team let their backs have the ball strong defence by centre Quintas Van Bosch lead to him stripping the ball and out sprinting the defence to run fully 70 metres and score a try under the posts. An unfortunate slip by fly half Ivan Kennedy led to the conversion being missed and the score was 5 - 3 to Watford. The home team got the next score when the had a line out close to Watford's line and they used their forwards to roll over and score the try. The conversion was missed to make the score 8 - 5 to the home team. With Man of the Match Mark Hicks and the returning Dave Mitchell carrying the ball forward and making ground being ably supported by the other forwards the next score came after good work by the forwards and quick ball allowed Van Bosch to score his second try of the game as he took his man on the outside. With the conversion missed by scrum half Simon Maney the half time score was 10 - 8 to Watford.

At half time captain Peter Nelson emphasised that discipline must be kept and that the forwards had got on top of the opponents and mustn't let them back in. The first score of the second half came from Watford after more good work by the forwards turning in strong performances the home team gave away a penalty in front of the posts which Maney converted to make the score 13 - 8 to Watford. The home team then had a sustained period of pressure in the Watford 22 where they had a succession of scrums, but outstanding work by the whole pack, notably props Trevor Hickey and Nelson and second rowers Jon Stevens and Matt Sharpe led to the home team electing to take a drop goal instead of going for the try which was a moral victory for the away team and made the score 13 - 11 to Watford. Watford tried to keep the pace of the game high and great line out ball from flanker Ian Matthews meant that the away team were able to attack through their backs who were being guided expertly by flay half Kennedy.

Good ball from the forwards led to the next score as centre Peter Cox out sprinted the defence on the blind side to touch the ball down to the right of the posts for his 3rd try in 2 games. The conversion by Maney made the score 20 - 11 to Watford who knew that victory was in their grasp. The home team made one last effort to try and get back into the game but resolute defending by the whole of the Watford team which was typical of the whole game, meant that there was no way that the home team were going to score a try. The final whistle went and Watford knew that they had achieved what the had come for and that this is only the first step into turning their season around.

Watford's next game is a friendly at home this Saturday against a Tring club side and their next league game is against Old Haberdashers on Saturday February 17th where 2 more points for a win are a must.

Team: Hickey, Hicks, Nelson©, Stevens, Mitchell, Chapman, De Klerk, Matthews, Maney, Kennedy, Portway, Van Bosch, Cox, Dunbar, Thompson. Subs used: Sharpe for Chapman, Ryan for Dunbar and Ossowski for Portway.