Wath 19 - 26 Old Grovians 26

Wath Lack Control

For the second successive game the Wath players left the field disappointed with their own performance. A slow start to the game with both teams sparring for dominance was broken by a penalty to Old Grovians for an infringement at a ruck. The 0-3 lead should have been increased with another penalty as Wath forward’s technique continued to displease the referee. Despite the missed opportunity Wath’s frustration led to a yellow card for Joe Earp as they were regularly penalised.

Another successful penalty kick extended the away team’s lead to 0-6 after 30 minutes. Wath at last responded with a period of quality rugby. Winger, Sam Holt, received a clearance kick and made ground to link with his forwards. After several dominant phases, the ball was spun wide to Holt to sprint over the line to complete the move he had initiated.The difficult conversion was just wide but Wath had closed to 5-6. An excellent drop kick from O.G. took the lead out to 5-9 but Wath finished the half with a drive from a line out that resulted in Luke Stead grounding the ball over the line. Jack Whitlam’s conversion gave Wath the lead at half time: 12- 9, as the home side appeared to have regained their composure.

Wath effectively lost the game just after half time. O.G scored two converted tries, both from attempted clearance kicks, and pulled away to a 12 -23 lead. A mixture of poor ball retention and game management, compounded by renewed frustration at the referees interpretation of the breakdown laws, led to a second yellow card as Joe Bartlett’s reaction was deemed as dissent.
The resulting penalty extended O.G.’s advantage to 12-26.

The introduction of Richard Hill at this stage helped Wath to regain some control and, with 10 minutes left, Luke Pendlebury, also having come off the bench, scored a try which Whitlam converted to bring Wath back to within one score at 19- 26. Despite going close with Andy Bartlett’s burst to the line, the O.G.’s scrambling defensive line just held out to the final whistle.

Wath had the ability and firepower to defeat their organised and workman-like opponents but were distracted from their game plan. Credit to O.G. as they capitalised on Wath’s errors and lack of discipline.

Steve Corns