29th September 2003
T's spluttered and coughed without hitting top gear on Saturday as they lost narrowly to an injury time drop goal against Cambridge. It was a strange game in which neither team really had any periods of intense pressure in the opposition 22. All four tries were 'soft' and the match lasted 55 minutes in the first half and 53 minutes in the second, when really 40 mins each way would have been more that enough.

Key to the T's defeat was probably good defensive play by the Cambridge three quarter line coupled with the lack of a cutting edge, or raw speed, to allow T's to break through. So onward to London Scottish at the weekend.

The Richmond and Twickenham Times report follows:

TWICKENHAM 18 CAMBRIDGE 20

Twickenham suffered their first defeat of the season in most cruel circumstances. Cambridge were never in front during a match of numerous injuries, and with 40 minutes of the second half gone the referee indicated there would be 13 minutes more play. For most of this time T’s held on to a narrow 18-17 lead and then had a spot kick, but the attempt went narrowly wide only for Cambridge to land a dropped goal from 30 metres, just before the whistle blew.

In the 55-minute first half several players were injured and the game became very ill-tempered. Cambridge missed two early penalties and it was T’s who took the lead when centre Clinton Banks charged down an opposition clearance, latched on to the ball himself and sent fellow centre Joe Foley over for his first try of the season. Captain and fly half James Clark converted.

A missed tackle enabled Cambridge to go over and the conversion levelled the scores. Before half-time, T’s had two men sent to the sin bin for persistent infringing and disputing the decisions of the referee. Yet during this time the remaining 13 played their hearts out and T’s went back ahead with a penalty from full-back Glen Seabrook. Before the interval Clark added another penalty for a 13-7 turnaround.

Twickenham ought to have made the game safe as they had the slope in their favour in the second half. They stretched the lead to 18-10 when, from a beautiful kick by Clark to move them close to the Cambridge line, flanker Rob Kirby got the ball down from the opposition’s line-out.

A missed tackle was again the source for a converted try to bring Cambridge within a point of T’s and the kicking competition of the last few minutes, and the 18-20 defeat.

T’s hardly deserved to lose this match but it demonstrated that this is a tough League to be in and greater discipline and pin-point goal-kicking will be required if they are to realise their ambition of promotion.

SCORERS: Tries; Foley, Kirby. Penalties: Clark, Seabrook. Conversion: Clark

TWICKENHAM: Seabrook (Guyett75), John, Foley, Banks, Taylor, Clark, Peters, Hannon(Moses 65), Tytherleigh, Mooney, Goff, Davies, I’Anson, Kirby, Drinkwater.

Elsewhere in the Club

Spirited displays by the Trojans and Blacks at the weekend, but no points to show for their efforts as they both went down to Guildford. The Trojans played most of the game with 14 men and the last ten minutes with 13 as they lost 39-51. The Blacks went down 24-5. Both games were the first in the new style Surrey merit table.

Around the Region

London Scottish and Woodford are the only two unbeaten teams at this early stage of the league, and Cheshunt and Romford & Gidea Park are holding the table up at the bottom with nil points. Otherwise it seems as open as ever this year, with the main surprise being the slow start the Bank of England has made.