Rosslyn Park 8 (Try: Traynor (80). Pen: Mahony (5).
Westcombe Park 22 (Tries: Greenaway (48), Marshall (58), Hayman (72). Cons: Barnett 2. Pen: Barnett (9). .
With Southend convincing winners at home to Dings Crusaders Westcombe Park had to settle for second place and a play off place with Tynedale after this win over Rosslyn Park. Second place saw Combe go one place better than last season for their highest ever placing in the National Leagues in eight seasons.
Park were first on the scoreboard with a Richard Mahony penalty goal on five minutes but four minutes later it was all level with Sam Barnett replying for Combe in what turned out to be the final score of the half. .
In the second half Combe ran in three tries to pull ahead into a 22-3 lead with tries form wingers Sam Greenaway and Peter Marshall and No 8 Tom Hayman and Barnett adding a couple of conversions.
Park did finally make it over the Combe line in injury time when winger Duncan Traynor went over.
Sam Greenaway ended the season as the leagues second highest try scorer on 22 tries and Hayman on 19 was fifth in the list.
Clifton 72 (Tries: Blake (3), Viol 2 (13, 64), S Kent (18), Penalty try (48), Lambert 2 (50, 77), Hall (52), Reid (56), Pennycook (79). Cons: Barnes 8. Pens: Barnes 2 (37, 39).
Chinnor 17 (Tries: Carter (22), B Hewitt (71). Cons: J Hewitt 2. Pen: J Hewitt (43).
Clifton made no mistake in securing their National League status for another season with this convincing win over Chinnor who actually piped them to South West One title last season.
Three tries in the opening quarter saw them go into a 19-0 lead before the visitors pulled seven points back with a try of their own. Two John Barnes penalties late in the half extend the home lead to 25-7 at half time.
In the third quarter Clifton took the match with four tries to pull away into a 51-10 lead. They got three more tries in the final quarter with replacement hooker Tom Lambert bagging a brace. There was also a double for winger Rob Viol to move him to 15 for the season.
John Barnes finished the match with 22 points and finished the season on 210 the third highest total in the division.
Southend 76 (Tries: Connors 2 (11, 30), Soolefai 3 (14, 41, 76), C Green 3 (20, 43, 63), McKeith (32), Guess (55), Frost (71). Cons: Frost 8, Goodey. Pen: Frost (6).
Dings Crusaders 15 (Tries: Davies (28), Edwards (34), Wheeler (39).
Southend wrapped up the National Three South title with this convincing win over Dings Crusaders running in 11 tries. Andrew Frost gave them a 6th minute lead with a penalty goal before No 8 Jamie Connors went over for the games opening try on 11 minutes. Tries from Full Back Chris Green and centre Faapulou Soolefai soon saw the home side go into a 24-0 lead with Frost converting them both.
Centre Mark Davies pulled a try back for the visitors but with Connors getting a second and fly half Ben McKeith touching down Southend were 36-5 ahead and the try bonus point in the bag. Late in the half the visitors did manage to cross the home line a couple of times to make it 36-15 at half time.
In the second half it was one way traffic with six more tries as centre Soolefai went on to complete a hat trick and finish the season as leading try scorer with 32 tries and Green finished sixth in the try scorers list with 17. Frost ended the match with 24 points and ended the season top points scorer with 335 points.
Bridgwater & Albion 17 (Tries: Hancock (10), Bryant (60). Cons: Wulff 2. Pen: Wulff (72).
Cinderford 22 (Try: Wilson (73). Con: Greenaway. Pens: 4 (5, 7, 17, 59). DG: Greenaway (50). .
SEVENTEEN points from the boot of fly-half Phil Greenaway ensured victory for Cinderford finished their league campaign and so end the home side's run of four victories though they did pick-up a loosing bonus point and have one game still to play.
The visitors, who finish the season in eighth place, took an early lead through two Greenaway penalties before left wing Gavin Hancock ran 50 metres to score the first try of the game under the posts for fly-half Christian Wulff to add the simple conversion.
But the midway point of the first half Cinderford had regained the lead through Greenaway's third penalty. Wulff was denied a try as the final pass from Hancock was deemed forward by New York based referee Chris Hensall who is in this country on an exchanged visit.
Cinderford increased their 9-7 interval lead with a drop goal and a penalty from Greenaway but on the hour right wing Jon Edwards was stopped short of the line. When the ball was recycled replacement tighthead prop James Bryant scored Bridgwater's second try, again under the posts.
Wulff added the extras and a penalty to give the home side the lead for the first time in the game. But this was short-lived when Wulff's clearance kick was charged down and Toby Wilson collected. The centre managed to get to the line despite the efforts of centre Tito Elisara with Greenaway converting again.
Lydney 25 (Tries: Jenkins (40), W Jones (51), Macrea (56). Cons: Westall 2. Pens: Westall 2. .
Havant 7 (Try: Ramus (80). Con: Petzer.
Lydney finished in fifth place a drop of a place on the two previous seasons after this home win over Havant as they completed the double over the Hampshire side. Despite the loss Havant still finished in third place, six places better than last season, a point clear of Canterbury and three clear of Lydney
Adam Westall gave the home side a 6-0 lead with two penalty goals in the opening 22 minutes and when he converted a Dean Jenkins try on 40 minutes it gave the home side a 13-0 half time lead.
Tries in the third quarter from replacement back row Will Jones and winger Andy Macrea saw the home side go into a 25-0 lead.
The only score of the final quarter saw Havant cross the home try line through flanker Ali Ramus in injury time and full back Anton Petzer added the conversion.
Old Patesians 22 (Tries: King (8), Taylor (12), Nock (78). Cons: Nock 2. Pen: Nock (26).
Hertford 39 (Tries: Ellis (17), Schmidt 2 (28, 49), Vaileti (44), Lewis (65), Howells (76). Cons: Howells 3. Pen: Howells (56).
HERTFORD took maximum points from their visit to Everest Road but they still be relegated, along with their hosts and basement side Chinnor in what was the last game in charge for Old Pats' director of coaching Chris Raymond and director of rugby Bruce Fenley.
The club have yet to name their replacements, probably opting for a team manager plus forwards and backs coaches, but Raymond believes that unless Old Pats embrace professionalism then the Cheltenham based club will always find it very difficult to sustain national league status.
He added: "It has been a tough year and it is a shame that we are going down, but this could be a good thing in the long run. We have found it very difficult to compete with the quality of players that have been purchased this year by the clubs in our division."
Old Pats managed to contain their visitors in the first half taking a 17-10 lead in to the break after tries from loosehead prop James King and centre Stuart Taylor were both converted by fly-half Rob Nock. The visitors finally got on the scoreboard after 17 minutes through a try from centre Phillip Ellis.
Nock added a penalty but on the half hour left wing Johannes Schmid went over for Hertford’s second try to reduce the arrears to 17-10 at the interval. The visitors then dominated the second half running in another four tries until Nock scored a late touchdown.
Hertford's second half tries came from No.8 Talite Vaileti, full back Gareth Lewis, a second from Schmid plus a brace from fly-half Dan Howells who also added three conversions to take his tally to sixteen points in their final Division Three South game.
Canterbury 53 (Tries: O’Gorman (4), Pratt 3 (21, 44, 78), Woodbridge (28), Melford (49), Wolmarans (55), Littlechild (62). Cons: Dorton 3, Wolmarans, Pratt. Pen: Dorton (42).
North Walsham 7 (Try: Bardgett (39). Con: Young.
Canterbury finished their first ever season of National League rugby in style with a thumping home win over North Walsham and consolidated fourth place in the table whilst North Walsham finished in seventh place their worst finish since 1997-98 when they also finished seventh.
Canterbury went into a 15-0 lead with three unconverted tries in the opening 28 minutes with No 8 Rowan O’Gorman, centre Andrew Pratt and scrum half Nick Woodbridge touching down. Just before half time the visitors were over the home line with centre Jimmy Bardgett going over and Ian Young converted.
Full Back David Dorton put over a penalty early in the second half to extend the home sides lead and they then pulled away into a winning lead with three tries in 10 minutes with Pratt completing a double and tries for left wing Michael Melford and fly half Wessels Wolmarans and Dorton converted all three to make it 39-7. They got two more tries in the final quarter with Pratt going onto complete a hat trick and taking him to 16 for the season. |