No Westcliff upset as Ampthill mob prevail (From Echo)

No Westcliff upset as Ampthill mob prevail

1:16pm Tuesday 24th January 2012 in Rugby Union

Westcliff suffered a 39-15 defeat at home to Ampthill.

Westcliff had been hoping to cause an upset against their high-flying visitors.

But, amid accusations from the crowd of being boring, Ampthill were able to come out on top.

The visitors had a very good defence and stopped most of the attacks but they were cracked twice and Westcliff were unlucky not to score at least one more try.

The home side took first use of the strong wind and in the opening moments only a knock-on stopped a promising move that had taken them to the Ampthill line.

The Bedfordshire side ground their way out of trouble and set the pattern for the rest of the game with Westcliff’s forwards having to give way several times.

Despite the score, the home defence was good and only a few tackles were missed.

However, they went behind when the ball bounced about near the Westcliff line and the visitors collected it to score a converted try.

Ben McKeith then narrowed the gap with a very good penalty, before he added a try which he also converted to put his side 10-7 in front.

However Ampthill, who are now in the play-off places, were not fazed and came back steadily to score another try for which the conversion into the wind and from a tricky angle, was only just short.

The Ampthill pack then came into its own and rolled Westcliff back at a scrum to score a pushover try which went unconverted.

The change of ends came with Ampthill 17-10 ahead and they started the second half as they finished the first with a pushover try, meaning they were now leading 22-10.

Westcliff defended for long periods and made some impressive breaks with long passing moves sweeping them towards the Ampthill line, but the visitors held firm and another converted try set up by the pack made it 29-10 with the conversion.

Westcliff hit back with a try from Jim Smith but Ampthill replied with two late tries to seal their win.