Herts/Middlesex One: Finsbury Park 68 UCS Old Boys 5

UCS Old Boys began the New Year with a 68-5 defeat away to Herts/Middlesex One leaders Finsbury Park.

Undeterred by a last-minute venue change, the West Hampstead Titans travelled to Hackney Marsh to face down the leaders and, despite the final score, generally had a good time.

Old Boys truly shone in some aspects of the game. An excellent tight defence and line-speed kept Park out for the first 20 minutes, and Ben Brooks nearly opened the scoring with an attempted interception that unfortunately led to a penalty.

Despite going 14 points down, and an early injury bringing Tom Arnold off the field early, Chris Bean’s powerful running and pace set up a beautiful try, slammed down in the corner by Nat Breakwell

Finsbury Park’s retort to this was two more quick tries before the end of the half to hold a 28-5 advantage.

Despite the score, and the five more tries Finsbury Park scored in the second half, UCs continued to play a positive game.

Liam Clarke retained his cool despite huge pressure, while Corne Jansen Van Vuren ran hard and distributed the ball well.

Sam Richardson’s tackling, running and lineout disruption earned him man of the match honours.

Arguably the Old Boys’ greatest achievement was their discipline, only conceding five penalties in the entire game.

Breakwell’s excellent kicking took advantage of those penalties and despite the some truly positive things can be taken from this loss.