Woodford vs Ruislip ...

Woodford 19 - Ruislip 20

Woodford lose to Ruislip in a tense affair that was well contested between two evenly matched sides.

Despite an early Eleftheriou break it was Ruislip who looked the more dangerous outfit in the opening minutes and opened the scoring after a fine break down the short side of an attacking scrum. Woodford expected Ruislip to be a well drilled side and they were not disappointed – the Ruislip kicker knocked over the conversion to give his side a 7-0 lead after five minutes.

Woodford though were not going to allow Ruislip all the action and attacked with verve through the blossoming centre partnership of Matt Halstead and Niall Moody. The pressure soon told as Red Newbury scored his third try of the season following a rolling maul. The conversion was missed but Woodford were back.

Woodford were now the dominate force and quick passing through the midfield gave winger Simo some space. He gathered his own kick ahead to score out wide and Woodford were looking good value.

More Woodford pressure led to the alert Nick Williams gathering a loose ball to score close to the posts and Woodford went into half time with a 19-7 advantage. Unfortunately for Woodford, this was to be their last score of the game.

The second half started well enough for the Highams based club and when the Woodford pack were steam rolling their opposition towards the line everyone expected a home score – the maul was pulled down and although the penaly was awarded to Woodford some indiscipline saw it reversed. This marked a turnaround in the fortunes of the Woodford side.

Again Ruislip showed their class as they attacked from a set scrum and scored out wide to bring them within a score. Woodford have only themselves to blame for the Ruislip next score – although it seemed though the ball was knocked down backwards the referees decision should not be questioned – the extra ten metres gained allowed the Ruislip kicker to add the extras from the half way line – an excellent kick which brought Ruislip to within a point.

Woodford were again though starting to attack their Ruislip counterparts and a piece of serious foul play saw the Ruislip second row binned. Unfortunately for Woodford, back row man Green was forced off the field as a result and with all forward substitutions made the numbers both at line out and set scrum were the same and Woodford were unable to make the sin binning count in their favour. The game was played in a clean manner up until that point and the Ruislip man looked rightfully embarrassed after the game.

Woodford looked to close the game out but a silly penalty given away when Woodford were in possession gave the Ruislip kicker a chance from out wide. An awesome kick gave Ruislip the lead with two minutes to go but Woodford still had a chance – they kicked off and regained the ball and when a rolling maul was brought down two metres for the line, the Highams men had a chance to regain the lead but the penalty was missed and Woodford were left to rue their poor discipline and missed opportunities.

Woodford will have to learn that giving penalties away when the opposition have a kicker of high class and quality will cost them in the end. Ruislip as expected are a tough outfit and will no doubt be challenging with Staines, Chingford and Tring for the top places in the league.