Westcliff Rugby Club's Ashley Whiting faces season out after injury blow (From Echo)

Westcliff Rugby Club's Ashley Whiting faces season out after injury blow

11:52am Wednesday 19th September 2012 in Sport By Chris Phillips

WESTCLIFF hooker Ashley Whiting is likely to miss the rest of the season after snapping an Achilles tendon during a 32-20 defeat at Old Elthamians.

Whiting was forced to hobble off in the opening exchanges.

And that added to the Westcliff’s frustration after also feeling they could have won the game.

“That was definitely a game of what might have been,” said Westcliff’s press officer Geoff Sawyer.

“If passes had gone to hand there is a chance we would have at least come away with a bonus point if not outright victory but it wasn’t to be.”

Old Elthamians took the lead with a penalty before Ben McKeith cancelled out the effort with a kick of his own.

The hosts then went back in front with a converted try but an excellent run down the wing by Westcliff’s replacement hooker Jim Smith soon resulted in a maul from which Shaun Roberts burst over the line.

McKeith’s conversion levelled it up at 10-10 before the two teams swapped penalties with McKeith doing the honours for Westcliff.

But Westcliff then gave away three more penalties to go 22-13 behind.

McKeith had the chance to narrow the gap but a penalty attempt hit a post and Westcliff then looked to have a certain try on the cards, only for the last pass to go astray.

Shortly after, an intercepted pass gave Elthamians the chance to run the length of the field to score a try which was goaled and gave the Kent side a cushion of 16 points.

However, Westcliff were not finished and Rupert Edwards went in for a try which McKeith converted for 29-20 but Westcliff gave away another penalty for 32-20.

On other occasions Westcliff tries looked on but the ball was dropped or a pass went astray and that ultimately condemned them to a second successive defeat.