Twickenham 12 St Albans 17

Twickenham slipped to seventh in London Three North West after losing their 100 per cent record in matches against St Albans on Saturday, writes Pete Wolsey.

Once again Ts fielding a lightweight pack found themselves denied too much possession by the bigger and more aggressive St Albans forwards, in particular their number eight, who made an outstanding contribution to their victory.

The visitors scored a well-worked back row try within the first 15minutes which they converted, and then a penalty five minutes later.

The Twickenham forwards took a long time to make any impression on the game and looked all at sea compared to StAlbans outfit who hit the rucks and mauls with more determination.

However just as the Twickenham pack was starting to come to terms with the opposition, and just before half time, the St Albans number four crashed over for another try, again this was converted leaving the mid way score at 0-17.

There seemed to be a more positive attitude by Twickenham at the restart and within three minutes winger Rupert Freeman used his pace to outflank the defence and score a well worked try. This was converted by Phil Astbury.

Looking more competitive when they managed to get the ball to the backs Ts started to play with some confidence.

When the other winger Russell Witham added a try to narrow the gap to just five points it seemed as though Ts would overhaul the St Albans score.

They were unfortunate not to score when fly-half Neil Francis, despite a valiant effort, just could not hang on to a difficult low pass while sprinting at full speed with the line open before him.

Even then Ts had two more opportunities to win, through penalties awarded against St Albans, who were starting to show some sign of nerves at the prospect of a rare win against the home side, but it was not to be and the ball missed the posts on both occasions.

Despite the loss both wingers Freeman and Witham stood out for Twickenham and one wonders what they could have achieved with more ball.

Twickenham: M.Nicholson, M.Brandt, R.Moses, A.Wakefield, D.Stewart, C.I'Anson, P.Wadden, M.Dever, J.Peters, N.Francis, J.Foley, P.Astbury, R.Witham, A.Sharpe (M.Wadden), R.Freeman.