6 February 2010: London 1 North

Stevenage Town 14 – 21 Letchworth Garden City

Letchworth recorded their fourth successive win against their local rivals, since Stevenage were promoted into this league in 2008. This victory was all the sweeter as the game doubled up as a Herts Presidents’ Cup Fixture, which now sees Letchworth through to the semi-finals.

This was not a great technical spectacle; there were too many errors on both sides for that, but what it lacked in technique, it more than made up for in terms of excitement, tension and some excellent tries.

Letchworth led from as early as the 2^nd minute with the first of three penalties from Gavin Donald and by just after the half hour mark, this lead had been extended to 15 – 0, with two tries from Joe Shaw and Kieran Cox, underlying the dominance that the visitors had behind the scrum. Shaw scored from a well worked miss move and Cox scored an excellent try following a period of sustained Stevenage pressure. From a scrum well inside the Letchworth half, the ball was quickly moved to Cox on the left wing, who had plenty to do as he kicked ahead and won the chase to score in the corner.

Despite always being behind, Stevenage showed remarkable fight and determination. They had their visitors on the back foot for long periods in the game as they had the better of the forward exchanges, but were unable to convert the territory and possession into points as they struggled be find any pace or fluency in their backs, not helped by some occasionally poor handling.

Both sides suffered from some bizarre referring decisions, which saw a total of 23 penalties awarded but some other more obvious infringements by both sides go unpunished.

Letchworth prop Garry Glencross was sent to the sin bin after 38 minutes and just on the stroke of half time, Stevenage hauled themselves back into the game with a superb try from Ian Crompton. Crompton, temporarily filling in at full back for the indisposed Stuart McReynolds, came into the line at pace and beat the covering defence to score from inside his own half. McReynolds recovered to slot over the conversion making the half time score 15 – 7 to the visitors.

Stevenage lost the chance to make an immediate impact after the break, when they conceded another kickable penalty shortly after half time, which enabled Donald to extend the lead to 18 – 7. At that point, Letchworth seemed to have the game under control, but Stevenage were having none of that as they continued to pressurise the Letchworth defence. Michael Wilson came close to out stripping the Letchworth cover with a run from well inside his own half, but he eventually did not quite have the legs to make it all the way to the try line.

Town were finally rewarded in the 63^rd minute with a try from Captain Tavita Faamausili who finished off a driving run by Phil Pearson. The try was converted by McReynolds to make the score 14 – 18 to Letchworth and set up an exciting finale.

Both sides were looking to add to their score, which in turn added to the tension as the initiative ebbed and flowed from one side to the other. It was Letchworth, who took their chance with a third and final penalty from Donald with 9 minutes left on the clock, leaving Stevenage requiring a converted try to level the scores. Despite all their efforts, this eluded them and Letchworth bagged another 2 league points as well as that place in the semi final of the Presidents’ Cup.

Stevenage Town Team: Stuart McReynolds, Ian Crompton, Kris Foskett, Gareth Roberts, Michael Wilson (Chris Wilson 70 mins), Dan Phoenix, Gary Ottolangui, Barry Cook, Tom Meller, Tavita Faamausili, Ryan Arbon (Jason Lacey 55 mins), Adam Amos, Scott Quarmby, Alex Banna, Phil Pearson

Subs not used:          Jacob Smith

Scorers:                     Tries:  Ian Crompton

                                          Tavita Faamausili

                                Con:    Stuart McReynolds (2)

Letchworth Garden City Team: Glyn Hughes, Kieran Cox, Jarred McCutchie, Joe Shaw, Jack Tredgett, Gavin Donald, Harvey Howman, Garry Glencross, Brian Gates, Darren Spillane, Martin Kirby, Mark Burgess, Sean Flatman, Lewis Hett, Jagi Johal

Scorers:                     Tries:  Joe Shaw

                                          Kieran Cox

                                  Pen:    Gavin Donald (3)

                                  Con:    Gavin Donald