14th October 2005 Watford 14 - 11 Enfield Ignatians |
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Though this game was a friendly it was crucial that Watford put in a
strong performance with regard to the crucial upcoming league fixtures
against Wasps and Southgate. The game commenced in an even manner with
Watford perhaps enjoying a slight dominance with ball carriers in their
mobile pack continually breaking the gain line. Unfortunately the line
breaks were not capitalised upon due to the lack of supporting runners.
Enfield competed well in the tight and continually forced the home side
back with a series of well directed kicks. Peter Jenkins at full back
dealt capably with everything that was thrown at him and made dangerous
incursions into the Enfield half whenever possible.
At about the mid point of the half, inside centre Cox made a great
break down the left and looked a certain scorer after grounding the
ball, however the referee ruled that a foot had been placed in touch
and disallowed the try. This seemed to knock the stuffing out of the
home side and mistakes began to creep into their play whilst Enfiields
attacks began to grow in momentum. These culminated in a try which they
scored on the Watford left after a lineout close to the tryline. At
half time Watford found themselves with a 5-0 deficit. The second half began quite openly with both sides mounting their own attacks, however as it progressed Watford's overeagerness resulted in them conceding a string of silly penalties two of which Enfield took full advantage of by slotting over the posts to place them eleven points ahead. In the final quarter Watford stepped their game up and managed to dominate and force a series of set pieces near the Enfield line, however the final pass was not quite good enough and Enfield looked dangerous on the counter and nearly snatched a breakaway try through an interception. With about 10 minutes remaining Johnson looked a certain scorer and dived over the tryline, though somehow contrived to lose the ball whilst doing so. A couple of minutes later Watford finally scored through an outstanding break from Cox, who excruciatingly looked like he was going to be denied the score he deserved by the last defender, but at the final minute he cleverly flipped the ball up to the supporting Ross who was able to score just to the right of the posts. Maney capably converted to reduce the arrears to 11-7. With what turned out to be the final move of the game the Watford pack pick and drove blind in the aftermath of a scrum, the ball was then quickly moved right by fly half Kiely (who almost knocked on in the process) to second row Stevens who bullocked and barged his way over the line. The whistle blew the instant after Maney calmly slotted over the conversion to complete Watford's great escape. However they will have to up their game in the next couple of weeks and play for the whole 80 minutes if they are going to progress further up the league. Watford - Reilly, Sedgeley, Nelson, Mealing (Andre), Stevens, Wadey, Tom Kiely, Sharpe, Maney, Andy Kiely, Johnson, Cox, Ross, Frankish (Bridge), Jenkins. Tries - Ross, Stevens Conversions - Maney (2) Man of the Match - Reilly |
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