1st XV match reports

National League Three South

Ealing 27 London Scottish 13 

THIS WAS A dreadfully disappointing performance by Scottish, who succumbed to their third defeat in five matches. Their more limited old rivals deserved their win because on the day they played more disciplined rugby, and made the better use of the breeze and of the notorious slope at Vallis Way.

Scottish did get points after the break, eventually working out how to use the breeze at their backs, despite now having to toil uphill, and the second half was a tight 14-13 contest, if not the thriller of last season.

But the game was lost in the first period. Scottish will kick themselves for going into half time 0-13 down: while failing to make anything of the chances they created, they gifted the home side’s points, defending without depth and so leaving plenty of space for Ben Ward and co to kick the ball into the inviting spaces behind them. From such territorial opportunities even this season’s stuttering Ealing are good enough to profit.

Yet in attack Scottish too often seemed to be coming from deep onto slow ball and thus made too little use of the amount of possession a good pack display earned. Scottish won four lineout turnovers to one, and consistently troubled the home side at scrum, but had little to show for it; by the end, and chasing the game, backs under pressure to conjure something started to make unforced errors with ball in hand, and leave too many gaps when defending.

Even the inevitable ten minute break when Essien was carded for persistent ball-killing failed to yield a net profit in points.

Scottish had plenty of chances, but mostly spurned them - not least when lineouts on the home line came to naught. This was partly thanks to Ealing’s persistent technique for stopping the drive – one of the pack, usually No 8 Russell Carr, goes to ground behind the maul, so that as it approaches, everyone falls over him. Not that Scottish should have been surprised – Ealing practiced the same antic last season! Eventually, the visitors cottoned on, and after setting up a driving maul ten metres from the Ealing line, waited for Carr to fall - and promptly drove sideways to avoid him; alas they profited not, as the move broke down at the next phase.

Ealing began with a try that Scottish should have prevented. From a penalty kicked into the Scots 22, Ealing initially found no angle of attack, but the full back set off along the line unchallenged before releasing Carr; Ward converted.

Scottish responded with a good spell of pressure. One promising move died as Lee Cholewa was seemingly tripped, and needed prolonged treatment. He limped on, for a time switching places with Cam Avery, though Ealing ignored the opportunity to attack the obviously impaired emergency winger; soon enough, with just a quarter of an hour gone, Cholewa was replaced by Rob Smart.

More chances came and went, with two good attacks foundering on spilt balls when it seemed, against an Ealing defence struggling to hold shape in retreat, that Scottish only had to join the dots to get the ball over the line. But they spent long periods in their own half at the top of the hill, playing neat rugby in patches but not making significant progress. A long, raking touchfinder from Duncan Hayward on 37 minutes was just about the first occasion the visitors opted to kick for position rather than run for it.

And meanwhile, as they themselves conceded territory Scottish shipped two crucial penalties in range, one for a scrum offence, and another for offside at a maul, and wind-assisted Ward potted both with ease to leave the half-time score looking ominous.

Smart got Scottish onto the scoreboard soon after the break, but then a catastrophic communications breakdown enabled Owen Bruynseels to intercept and dash away from inside his own half, too quick even for the chasing Gareth Swales. The deficit was now surely too much but Scottish produced a spirited response.

First, from a lineout the drive was successful and Stuart Silvester was bundled over the line; then as Essien took his enforced break – for killing a lovely move between Mark Douglas, Hayward and Greenslade-Jones – Avery profited from another driving maul.

But Smart couldn’t convert his two tricky kicks, leaving Scottish still seven behind. That would have been enough for a bonus point, but having played conservatively for much of the game, Scots now threw all they had at the home defence; Hayward was denied when held up over the line, and several other drives came up just short.

But by then, inevitably, a careless moment had cost Scottish the game. Centre Hodgkinson waltzed through an inviting gap and broke two tackles to score under the posts. Ward’s conversion meant a healthy return of five goals from five attempts in the breeze.

Paul McFarland

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