Amersham & Chiltern 33 FULLERIANS 1st XV 21

LONDON 1 NORTH

After their emphatic win the week before Fullerians were hoping to kick on and they did play well at times but three mistakes gifted Amersham & Chiltern three tries and the win.
Fullers started well and it wasn’t long before a penalty was awarded as the scrum began to dominate. Skipper Dan Evans converted two penalties in quick succession one great kick from the half way line using the strong wind.

Then Fullers gifted the home side a try as they turned over the ball and Amersham quickly spread the ball wide to score. They then scored again as Fullers knocked on just outside their 22 and from the scrum the No8 picked up from the base and ran unopposed but short of the line. The ball was shipped wide again for the home side to score.

Fullers came back with another Dan Evans penalty but instead of building the phases they failed to clear their lines to put themselves under needless pressure. Fullers also knocked on right on their own line. The resultant scrum went backwards with the Fullers pressure but somehow the ball was whizzed out. A simple chip through after a couple of phases found the Fullers defence absent and Amersham easily scored to lead 17-9.

Before the break Amersham knocked on in their own 22 and Fullers rolled them over from the scrum for No8 George Harvey to score making a 17-14 score at the break.

In the second half Fullers played into the wind but once again built the momentum building pressure on the Amersham defence but they let them off the hook by missing the line out or getting turned over at the breakdown.

Amersham extended their lead with a penalty as Fullers were offside but the visitors did not give up and went right back picking and driving to march up field. A 5 metre scrum saw a yellow card as the referee had enough of their skull doggery under the power of the Fullers front row. Fullers also awarded a penalty try for their dominance at scrum time making a 20-21 score in the visitors favour.

Amersham used the wind to pin Fullers back and again went in front with another penalty as Fullers came in from the side at the ruck.
Fullers responded by going through the phases but just could not get over the line as they got turned over once again at the break down or the last pass went missing.

To add insult to injury in the dying moments Amersham went over again to deny Fullers a bonus losing point as they scored their fourth try to seal the match.

“We lost the game as we gifted Amersham three tries in a 15 minute spell in the first half and you just cannot do this in this league as you will be punished. Our line speed was not as good as last week allowing them space to run which we will work on this week. We have a home semi-final cup game next week against Hertford so we can look at a few things.” commented Fullerians head coach Rich Hoskins.

Team. Barson, Williams, Bushell (MacGregor-Smith 60), D. Toon, Boyd 40, Scully (South 40), Harvey, Finnegan, Matchett, M. Toon, Dollard, Maher, Woodham (Laurenson 30), Mann, Evans

Man of the Match: James Maher