Cheshunt fell to their second defeat of this seasons London 3 North West campaign, but will pleased with the performance and looked likely winners towards the end of an evenly matched game.
Although frustrated from the kick off, unable to understand the referee’s interpretation of the tackle law, Cheshunt were fortunate to take the lead. Datchworth kept C’s pinned in their own half for the first 10 minutes and came up just short with a penalty attempt, an attacking opportunity down the blindside was spotted by fly half Geoff Hayden, his attempted interception was knocked forward on his 22 metre line, but the unsighted referee kept his whistle in his pocket and Hayden out sprinted the covering home defence to score in the corner.
Datchworth came straight back, a strong run by the No.8 opened up the C’s defence but he ignored a 3 man overlap and died with the ball. Persistant infringing from Cheshunt resulted in a Datchworth penalty 35 yards out, this time getting them on the scoreboard to pull it back to 3-5.
Cheshunt were finally awarded their first penalty 16 minutes into the game and kicked into the Datchworth half. Gary Barton and Oliver Martines made the hard yards, the ball was then spun along the line to winger Omid Amani who was tackled into touch just inside the 22.
The visitors were finally able to start securing some quality possession, and begun to look dangerous, particularly from broken play. Spilt ball in mid-field allowed Datchworth to attack again and yet another penalty conceded by the visitors saw the home side take the lead.
Almost immediately Cheshunt fell further behind, a poor clearance kick was returned with interest by Datchworth, the unorganised Cheshunt defence left a hugh space for the left winger to cross and D’s had increased the lead to 11-5 on the half hour.
Although Cheshunt were enjoying more territorial advantage, they failed to create much in the way of try scoring opportunities until just before half time. Declining a penalty in front of the posts, Cheshunt battered away at the Datchworth line, Barton and Joel Bailey coming close, but were always held up just short.
C’s turned around with the breeze in their favour and were hopeful of getting the lead back, but the referee dumbfounded the players and spectators when he yellow carded winger Dave Lever for a knock on when he was clearly impeded. The penalty was slotted to extend the lead to 14-5. Numbers were soon even however, when the Datchworth scrum half joined him, Tim McSharry kicking the penalty to reduce the arrears to 14-8. McSharry shaved the posts with two more penalty attempts, Datchworth also missing with a 35 metre attempt.
Into the last 5 minutes and with a second Datchworth player sent to the bin Cheshunt turned their attacks up a notch, but the home sides defence remained well organised and committed and kept them at bay. Then with the last move of the match, Cheshunt desperate to keep the ball alive were caught in possession Datchworth picked up the loose ball, raced to the line and dived over in the corner to deny Cheshunt a losing bonus point.
C’s will be pleased with the performance, if not the result and the coaching staff’s experiment of playing skipper Matt Corcoran at openside flanker proved a big success.
This Saturday, Cheshunt host Haringey at Andrews Lane, who sit at the top of the table with Datchworth, both sides undefeated.
Martines, Girdlestone (Chalk 35), Barton (Girdlestone 60), Donnelly, Jones, Clark (Angell 73), Corcoran, Bailey, Minos (McDonnell 40), Hayden, Amani, Thorne, Boulton, Lever, McSharry.
