Belsize Park suffer defeat at Westcombe despite strong effort
Belsize Park face the camera (Pic: Mark Liebling) - Credit: Archant
Belsize Park crashed to a 41-19 defeat against high-flying Westcombe despite a strong first-half effort.
After one of English rugby's most famous victory's in Yokohama in the morning and only a week on from Belsize Park's despatching of top of the table Camberley, the boys in black and purple yet again had their eyes on a famous scalp of their own away at Westcombe Park on Saturday.
Despite a resilient start to the match Belsize struggled to clear their lines two times in succession and Westcombe made their pressure tell slicing through on a kick return to open the scoring and convert after 20 mins of stalemate.
The score brought the game alive and straight from the kick-off the impressive Alex Devereaux pounced on an indecisive kick-receipt from the Westcombe forwards and ran in unopposed to tie the scores at 7-7 with 21 minutes played.
Significant momentum from the hosts forwards led to an opening and the elusive Westcombe fly-half jinked through before offloading inside for their second score.
A huge effort in a scrum lead to a penalty advantage which was used to good measure as the forwards battered the Westcombe line before top try scorer Conor McGrath charged over would be tacklers to record his eighth try of the season to make it 14-12.
In a topsy-turvy first-half, Belsize were then made to pay for their poor kick chase as Westcombe attacked from deep and Renford Bennet, one of Westcombe's many high-profile new recruits this season, rounded the outside of the Belsize defence to score.
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The second half started strongly, and Belsize were rewarded for their bravery in turning down the opportunity for an easy three point kick after Ben Docherty dived over in the corner.
Will Fairbank converted superbly from the touchline to tie the scores after 55 minutes.
This was the last time Belsize would trouble the scoreboard however as Westcombe took a strong grip on the game and ran in three unanswered tries by capitalising on a succession of unforced errors.
Westcombe also added three points from an infringement at the ruck to seal a 41-19 win.
