Tring 4th XV 32 - 27 Watford 2nd XV - 16/12/2005 |
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Watford arrived at Tring with a potentially strong looking bare 15 players with extreme youth and experience complementing each other. Martin Lee and Danny Bartram both back from University boosted the contingent of players aged twenty or under up to five, whilst the back row started the game with an average age of something like forty five. With the addition of late arrival 'grandad' Mealing in the second half the average age of numbers 5 to 8 must have risen towards 50!
The game commenced on a cruel hard frosty pitch, with the low sun making both player recognition and picking up the ball much more difficult than usual. However both sides looked competitive and up for the contest which evolved into an open affair with the conditions forcing mistakes contributing to this. Tring however looked a little steadier going forward with their pack making significant inroads and their 10 being able to set his backline in motion. They took the lead after about ten minutes when he chip kicked over the top on the 22 when the defensive line was flat, the bounce on the hard pitch favoured the attacking winger who was able to ground in the corner. The conversion was missed. Watford began to get their game together and were able to move the ball accross the wide pitch though were put in touch twice when in promising positions, their scrum was starting to dominate Tring's and Thompson was able to feed his backs quality ball which was continually wasted as players seemed to want to run through their opposite numbers rather than offload before contact. After a spell of pressure the ball was recycled through several phases before Lee used both his pace and brute strength to barge over the line and equal the scores at 5-5. The referee who was monitoring offside with ridiculous precision when far more serious ofences were not being considered, penalised Watford's backline for rushing up too quickly whilst defending a scrum on their line. The resulting penalty was converted to take the score to 8-5 to Tring who then scored another try out on the Watford left, the defending backs seemed to hesitiate before pressing their opposition (who knows the previous penalty may have had an impact in this.) Just before half time Lee used his naked aggression to batter himself over the line in trademark fashion, this made the half time score 13-10 to the home side. The second half continued in the end to end fashion of the first with Tring continually getting a further score ahead before being pegged back by Watford. The best try of the game was perhaps Lee's third, which came about after the ball had been taken in several times by the forwards before quick ball was intelligently spun right through the hands of Bartram and Andre for him to ground in the corner. Most disappointingly of all for Watford was just after Brendon Cox had battered over the line to make the score 25 -20 to Tring with 10 minutes remaining. At this point they were well in the ascendancy, playing with new found fire and aggression and felt capable of knocking off the deficit and going on to win the game. However disaster struck when Smith conspired with Bridge to make a complete mess of a quick line out throw near their own line, Tring took full advantage and scored near the touchline, adding the conversion to go 32-20 ahead. The spirit was still there and from kick off Watford surged to the Tring line like a red and blue tidal wave, Mealing applied the finishing touch but the try came as a result of several strong drives supported by clearing out from the whole Watford eight. Hassett slotted home the conversion in front of the posts to make the score 32-27 to Tring, however Watford knew that they were going to have to reply almost instantly to square the scores. This was not to be as from the kick off there was a despairing knock on from a Watford player that signalled full time, the delight on the Tring players faces showed both how pleased they were to win the game and that they had been in a real contest. To sum up it was extremely disappointing for the Watford players to come off the field with a defeat as they had put so much into the game for no reward. Although they only lost by a penalty kick and a conversion, the defeat really came about due to indiscipline, poor decision making and weak defence at crucial moments. Also the loss of Lee (to a head injury) and Bartram playing as a non tackling winger (due to injuries to both arms) removed two of Watford's most incisive runners from the majority of the second half. Admittedly the lack of a recognised kicker proved crucial as earlier in the season Watford had managed to win several games whilst being outscored in the try count, purely through the potency of their then kicker. To put an optimistic slant on it, there is not a big difference between the way the side is now playing and losing by the odd score, to the side that earlier in the season went on a long unbeaten run, let's hope that the new year can see a mirroring of the form of the first team and a return to winning ways. Watford - Nelson, Hassett, Andre, Sharpe, Martin Lee (Cox), Bridge, Brendon Cox (Mealing), Mullins, Thompson, Peter Cox, De Klerk, Wilson, Bartram, Smith, Frankish. Tries - Lee (3) Brendon Cox Mealing Conversion - Hassett Men of the Match - Martin Lee Andre Report by - Andy Frankish |
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