Westcliff Rugby Club resist late comeback at Westcombe Park (From Echo)

Westcliff Rugby Club resist late comeback at Westcombe Park

1:56pm Tuesday 2nd October 2012 in Sport By Chris Phillips

WESTCLIFF ended a run of three straight defeats by winning 36-30 at Westcombe Park.

The Aviation Way based side stood strong late on to resist a comeback from the home-side.

And that pleased Westcliff’s director of rugby Bob Smith.

“That was a very good performance,” said Smith.

“The boys kept their heads when Westcombe Park started to come back at them. “But James Scoggings was outstanding and the whole team rose to the occasion and played exceedingly well.”

Westcliff opened the scoring when Ben McKeith finished off a fine move to score the game’s first try.

He added the conversion to make it 7-0 before Ian Dartnell also touched down.

McKeith again added the extras before doing the same again after Rob Smith had also scored a try.

McKeith also kicked penalties, while Westcombe Park scored a penalty of their own and a try.

That put Westcliff 30-8 ahead at half-time but the home-side began to fight back. They brought it back to 30-27 and, roared on by home fans, they fought hard to level things up.

However, McKeith was not fazed when given the chance of two penalty kicks and he landed them both to give his side a little more breathing space. Westcombe Park came back with a penalty of their own but time ran out and the four points Westcliff got for this game lifted them out of the danger zone in National Three London & South East.

They will now be confident of building on the victory when they host second from bottom Staines.