Watford RFC 5 - 21 Old Tottonians

Man of the Match: Danny Bartrum

Watford 1st XV suffered a second successive defeat in their first home league game of the season, loosing to Old Tottonians by 21 points to 5. Despite loosing a number of first team players to injury during the week, the home team produced a gutsy display and were unable to convert considerable second half pressure into points until late on.

Watford were slow out of the blocks, and spent the majority of the first 40 minutes camped in their own half desperately defending continual Tottonians attacks. Utility back Danny Bartram, playing outside centre, excelled and made some shuddering hits, the highlight being a covering tackle on his own line preventing what would have been a certain try. Given the ammount of territory and posession gifted to the away team, Watford were fortunate to find themselves only 18 points down at half time.

Skipper Paul Wilson rallied the troops at half time, and Watford took to the pitch determined to give the sizeable home crowd somethig to cheer about. Over enthusiasm from the home team at the breakdown led to Tottonians converting a long range effort to extend their lead to 21 points. This galvanised the home side, who went on the spend the rest of the game camped in their opponents 22. Unfortunately they were unablde to find a cutting edge, and despite Tottonians having a man sent to the sin bin Watford were not able to cross the whitewash until  5 minutes from time, Bartram capping a fine individual display by crossing from close range.

Captain Paul Wilson said of the game “its a shame that we took 40 minutes to wake up and start playing the way we know we can. Despite the loss, there are a huge ammount of positives to be taken from the game – we know what we need to work on in training over the next couple of weeks, and look forward to hopefully getting off the mark in our next league game”

Watford: G. Wilson, Sedgely (Lee 50), Hicks, Hill, Bridge, Flint, M. Jenkins, Botha, Kiely, Lewens (Bennet, 70), Braun (P. Jenkins, 50), Bartram, Gilmore, P Wilson (C)