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Watford, after their stunning semi final victory on the same pitch
against Welwyn two weeks ago were able to field an unchanged side, for
possibly the first time this season and were all fired up to repeat
their exploits of a fortnight ago. They recieved Tring's kick off and
immediately aggressively chased a well executed return kick which caused
chaos in the Tring defence, resulting in turnover ball for Watford and
a good attacking position. The first ten minutes followed this pattern
with Watford setting up camp in the Tring half, periods of pressure were
only relieved by well placed clearance kicks from their fly half.
On one of the few forays that Tring made into the Watford half they
managed to make the most of an overlap on their left wing and some poor
defensive organisation which led to a try for their winger, the
conversion was added to take the score to 7-0 to Tring.
Watford continued to attack the Tring line throughout the second quarter
of the game and enjoyed almost total territorial dominance. There was in
particular a string of penalties conceded by Tring in front of their
posts where it seemed that Watford scores were inevitable, however the
defence was superb and Watford's strike runners were poorly supported
when a little more composure would surely have led to points on the
board. Tring were continually penalised for infringements around the
ruck, and though the referee spoke to one of their players, ten minutes
in the sin bin and even a penalty try were options that unfortunately
for Watford he failed to take. Andy Lee, had a great long range dart
that almost led to a try, Johnson and Andre were also tacked just short
of scoring what would have been a deserved tries at this point.
Disaster struck for Watford on the half time whistle as Tring scored a
pushover try through a maul resulting from an attacking line out, the
conversion was missed but it made the half time score 12-0 to Tring.
Prior to this Bartram, the Watford left winger had limped off with a
knee injury to be replaced by Tucker, this was a blow as he had looked
lively throughout and was probably the outstanding back on the pitch in
the first half.
At half time Watford were not too downbeat as they had competed fiercely
throughout and had enjoyed something like 60 - 70% territorial and
posession dominance. They had parity in the scrums and though the
lineout was not functioning as smoothly as it could have done there was
plently of time left to get the points they needed if they raised their
game.
The second half commenced in much the same manner as the first with
Watford managing to apply plenty of pressure, both counter attacking
from deep and well worked shorter range positions. Tucker, Thompson,
Bridge and Martin Lee all had decent shouts that they had scored tries,
however a combination of the referee and linesmen failed to give the
benefit of the doubt on any occasion. The back row, bolstered by
substitute Bennett began to dominate in the loose and both winger's
Wilson and Tucker were getting plenty of ball but not the space they
needed to utilise their dangerous pace. Watford suffered further when
Reilly was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes for allegedly pulling down
a scrum, however they managed to keep their line intact whilst Tring
enjoyed numerical superiority.
With less than 10 minutes remaining when it seemed that a Watford score
must surely materialise Tring's pacy left winger scored two individual
tries one of which resulted from an exceptionally fortunate bounce from
a clearance kick. The second try was converted on the final whistle to
make the final score an exceptionally flattering 24-0 to Tring.
In the final analysis, you could argue that Watford lost the game
themselves rather than Tring winning it by playing superior rugby,
however the scoreboard never lies and it was a great defensive effort by
them to keep Watford scoreless for the first and only time this season.
I believe the crucual period may have been in the mid period in the
first half when Watford had several penalties in front of the Tring
posts and continually threatened yet came away with nothing. With
hindsight taking three or even six easy points to get the scoreboard
ticking over may have been a better option than running the penalties as
the team would have been rewarded for its efforts. Likewise any of the
'close calls' in the second half would have put them right back in the
game and within a single score of Tring.
On the positive side Watford's largely youthful side rounded off an
encouraging season by qualifying for the final and laid down a marker to
go one better next season and bring some silverware back to Radlett
Road. Finally on behalf of skipper Thompson and all the players, I would
like to thank everyone who came along to Welwyn to give such superb,
noisy support and it's only a shame that we could not reward them with
the victory they had come to see.
Watford - Reilly, Dunlop, Vincent (Smith 60), Andre (Bennett
40), Smith, Steve, Bridge, Martin Lee, Thompson, Jenkins, Wilson,
Johnson, Andy Lee, Bartram (Tucker 35), Frankish.
Man of the Match - Paul Dunlop |
