1st XV match reports

London League Division One

Ealing 17 London Scottish 54

Victory was very sweet for the large travelling support who made the short trip across west London to watch Scottish turn in a performance that silenced the home crowd.

Scottish dominated throughout, apart from a brief spell of dozy defending either side of the break, during which Ealing scored and converted two tries to make the scoreline a little less embarrassing.

Nevertheless the result and the manner of its achievement underlined both the poverty of Ealing’s own promotion pretensions and the awfulness of Scottish’s home display against the same opponents, which had enabled Ealing to steal the points at the Athletic Ground and so damage the Scots hopes of going up. Now, with Richmond surprisingly losing to Canterbury, Scottish my have to win all ten remaining matches to secure a play-off for promotion.

What was most pleasing was that this was such a rounded display. Scottish built as always on a solid forward platform but though the pack twice kept the ball to themselves and produced trademark scores from lineouts and the catch and drive, nevertheless the pattern overall was much more open and expansive. As evidence that the ball was generally moved wide and quickly, the other five tries were shared among the outside backs.

Matt Dowling opened his club account with two scores to show off his scorching pace, Fraser Smeaton produced perhaps his best all round display in club colours and grabbed two of his own, also his first of the season, and Max Evans, ever sparky and dangerous, upped his own season’s tally to eight. Tom Williams converted five of the seven and added three penalties at useful points in the game.

The first of these opened the scoring early on, and though he then missed an ambitious attempt from the half way line, Scottish were away. The first two tries however needed a spot of assistance from the man in yellow.

First he sin-binned Nick Farren for pulling down a maul. Williams’ dragged his kick across the face of the posts, and five minutes later watched from the other end as Ben Ward’s own penalty attempt put the sides level. But with Farren still missing from the field Scottish won a midfield scrum and moved the ball swiftly away from the forwards, Stuart Peel and Max Evans combining to send Smeaton into the corner, albeit with a final pass that drifted fractionally forward.

It didn’t matter. Ealing compounded their own problems by losing hooker Hodson to the bin before Farren had returned, and Scottish capitalised in the most effective manner, kicking to the corner, winning the lineout and driving Paul Byford over in the corner. Williams converted both scores despite having to hit the first from the left touchline and the second from the right hand one.

Evans then touched down the third score only a few minutes later and the game was surely over. Scottish had stolen an Ealing lineout and moved the ball out. Reggie Perkins, impressing on his debut, Smeaton and Evans interchanged quickly, and the full back was away and gone for the score. Williams missed this one but converted the next in first half overtime, after Matt Dowling came into the line and simply eased away from the cover with his superior pace.

Scottish however took their eye off the ball, literally, to allow Leighton Norman in for a score at the other end, and Jim Kelly, skippering the side in the absence of the ill Karl Hensley, was binned for blatantly killing ball and, it seemed, man as well. 

Scottish then started the second half with their eyes wide shut, at least in midfield, where Hughes ambled through an enormous gap to score under the posts.

At 17-29 the game suddenly looked close on the scoreboard, but to the visitors credit it never looked like getting away from them on the pitch.

They played out Kelly’s ten minute break sensibly, and then eased away. Williams woke up the scoreboard operator by slotting a second penalty as the hour mark approached, and then the whole crowd snapped to attention as Dowling scored a magnificent solo effort. True, he needed the initial break and pass from Rory Greenslade-Jones who had replaced the injured Peel earlier. But Dowling then set off down the right, chipping one defender, taking the catch and outstripping Ealing’s fastest on a 60m dash to the line. Williams had no possibility of missing the kick.

All that now remained was to determine the margin of victory. Williams added a third penalty, then Simon Devane  got the ball down from another lineout catch and drive, David Watt having initiated the midfield break which created the position in the first place.

Smeaton’s second score at the death, laid on by Greenslade-Jones’s break, took the tally past the emotive figure of 50. Ealing’s only consolation will be the amount of money spent at the bar afterwards by a joyous Scottish crowd.

Paul McFarland

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