NATIONAL THREE LONDON & SE

Tonbridge Juddian.............................35

Westcliff............................................23

 

WESTCLIFF were left disappointed after being edged out at Tonbridge Juddians in National Three London & SE.

Westcliff were in with a shout of winning the game with just a few minutes remaining.

But their first team manager Rick Compton remained proud of the performance, despite the result.

“It was a good performance by the team and in that respect we have to be happy,” said Compton.

“However, with just minutes to go we had realistic hopes of winning the game and to get nothing from it was desperately disappointing.

“We had some bad luck losing both centres and having to rearrange things before half time but we still did enough to take something from the game.

“A couple of poor decisions within a minute or two of each other rendered everything else we did in the other 78 minutes meaningless and in terms of our position in the league it was a wasted opportunity to improve it.”

Tonbridge, who are seventh in the standings, went in front with an early penalty.

But Westcliff soon hit back with skipper Ian Dartnell scoring a try which was converted by Jones to put the visitors 7-3 in front.

However, Tonbridge soon regained the lead with a try of their own to make it 10-7 but Dartnell was again on hand to bag another try which Jones converted to put Westcliff 14-10 in front.

Jones then struck the post with a penalty before he was forced off with an ankle injury.

In his absence, Greg Bannister took over kicking responsibilities and soon landed a penalty of his own to extend Westcliff’s lead to 17-10.

But, just before the break, Tonbridge also scored a penalty to bring them to within four points of the visitors at half-time.

A converted try at the start of the second half, saw the hosts take a 20-17 lead but the scores were then levelled by another penalty from Bannister.

The two teams then swapped penalties as the score rolled on to 23-23 with just seven minutes of the match remaining.

However, a reckless penalty needlessly conceded deep in Westcliff territory was to prove costly as the visitors switched off anticipating a kick at goal.

But Tonbridge opted to run the ball and exploited the space they were given to score a converted try.

Westcliff were then reduced to 14 men and their hopes of a losing bonus points were quashed when Tonbridge scored a push over try with the final play of the game.

Westcliff remain 12th in the table and host third placed Westcombe Park at the Gables this weekend.

Westcliff: Argentieri, Parmenter, J Jones, Garstin, Merrick, Bannister, B Jones, Skidmore, Hopkins, Binneman, Anderson-Brown, Dartnell, Scoggins, Cosgrove, Reynolds Replacements: Dellas, Roberts & Mamea