Hadleigh 47 – Twickenham 18

Even with the match starting later than scheduled, travel problems to this Suffolk fixture meant that Twickenham started the game with a forward short, and duly paid the price. For after just two minutes at a Hadliegh lineout their number four thought that Christmas had come early when he caught the ball, plunged through the gap in the T’s line and sprinted twenty yards for a try. Twickenham responded with a Phil Astbury penalty and two tries from forward drives close to the line by scrum half Jimmy Peters and hooker Chris Tytherleigh although by half time Hadleigh had added a converted try to their score. So, at the break Ts were very much in contention and only two points behind.

Hadleigh were fielding five Fijian servicemen in their team as well as a plethora of other Antipodeans in various positions who made good use of Twickenham’s, by now regular fallibility just after the break, and found enough gaps in the Twickenham defence to run in three tries, two converted, and a penalty within the space of thirty minutes.

The Twickenham forwards, as always, never gave up and late arrival Charlie I’anson scored a well worked try in the Hadleigh corner only to see them respond with yet another converted try.

This was a disappointing end to the first round of this season’s league matches and leaves the Ts with plenty of work to do in the new year if they are to avoid slipping further down the table.

Team: Nicholson ( Thomas), Tytherleigh, Moses,Wakefield, Goff, Colquorn, Pace, I’anson, Peters, Astbury, Stone, Howden, Isherwood, Rogers,