Old Haberdashers 7 FULLERIANS 1st XV 17

London 1 North League

Fullerians were quite simply a different team against Old Haberdashers who are sitting fourth in the league. Fullers had them in all departments and thoroughly deserved their win against a very good side.

A different warm up saw Fullers ready for kick off and straight put Old Habs on the back foot. The attacking play by Fullers looked in shape and put pressure on the home sides defence and when Old Habs had the ball Fullers line speed was outstanding knocking back anything that ran at them.

Fullers went ahead with a Dan Evans penalty as Old Habs were caught holding on. Fullers went a man down as scrum half Ben Matchett was sent to the bin for killing the ball. This seemed to make Fullers want the win more and they marched up field with some good ball retention and phase play. Wing Liam Mann saw the gap and used his quick feet and aggression to score under the posts. Evans once again converted the extra points.

Old Habs are not fourth for nothing and immediately responded to put pressure on the Fullers line and still a man down. However, Fullers defended with everything and were able to frustrate their hosts to deny them any score.

In the second half Old Habs started brighter to put pressure on Fullers line. Once again turnover after turnover in defence kept the home side out with No8 Myles Finnegan and prop John Barson winning the turnovers.

Fullers suffered another yellow card when fly half Myles Toon was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle. Old Habs this time made the extra numbers work and went over for a deserved score making it 7-10 and 15 minutes remaining.

This time Fullers game management was excellent pinning their opposition in the 22. A kick through by Dan Evans saw the covering full back take the ball over his own line. The 5 metre scrum saw Fullers push Old Habs back over the line but they tried to illegally kill the ball but the referee was having none of it and awarded Fullers a deserved penalty try.

In the dying moments Old Habs tried to break the Fullers defence but not today as Fullers just wanted it more and they deserved it.

“I was so proud of the guys today who defended their hearts out with all 18 contributing magnificently. We looked better in attack and our game management was very good indeed. We look forward to our next game away to Amersham & Chiltern” commented Fullerians Head Coach Rich Hoskins.

Team. Barson, Williams, Bushell (Macgregor-Smith 30), Boyd, Kerr, Scully (D. Toon 50), Harvey, Matchett, M. Toon, Woodham, Dollard (Wells 55), Maher, Mann, Evans.

Man of the Match: Liam Mann