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Old Albanians Romans vs London Irish Wanderers

Old Albanians Romans vs London Irish Wanderers

Matthew Cassin2 Mar 2019 - 20:00
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Wanderers Claim Crucial Away Win Old Albanians Romans 25-40 London Irish Wanderers 2nd March 2019

The London Irish Wanderers travelled to Old Albanians to take on the OA’s Romans for this postponed fixture. The Romans and the Wanderers are two very similar teams, with both games last season coming down to the wire. The Wanderers have opened the scoring on both occasions last season, but pipped in the last few minutes of the games both times. Funnily enough it was the current Geese scrum half, Ross Parsons, that kicked the last-minute penalty in last years home fixture to snatch the win from the Wanderers. With a small squad of regular Wanderers players, Colts and a couple of junior academy players, the Wandies were up for the match and looking forward to getting a win against Old Albanians.

The game started in the Wanderers favour with a well worked try for Mark O’Mara after a line break inside the 22 from Academy prop Luke Green. The pressure continued on the Romans defence as some hard carrying and blitzing defence kept the OA’s in their own half for the majority of the first half.

Wanderers manager, Trevor Johnson, was very pleased to see his pack on the front foot as they blew the Albanians forwards back in every scrum. The young Irish front row of Mufaru Mataurwa, Ed Cockman and Luke Green proved too much for the grizzled old boys of St. Alban’s.

Just like previous fixtures between these two sides, Old Albanians found their stride halfway through the first half and managed to scrape back two tries and two wind assisted penalties to leave the score at half time 13-21 after tries from O’Mara, Madle and O’Mahoney.

The second half kicked off with the Wanderers now playing with the wind and looking to seal the victory with a bonus point. Unfortunately it was Old Albanians who got the first score of the half and it was starting to look like an all too familiar resurgence was coming. This momentum was swiftly smashed by Colts winger, Kyle O'Mahony, as he danced around the defence then put the boot down to tear away towards the line.

A moment of luck/perfectly planned magic, from Ben Stevens and Kyle O'Mahony to get the Wandies their fifth try. A perfectly placed kick from Stevens, directed at the touchline, was gathered mid-air and offloaded back onto the pitch by O'Mahony for Stevens to collect and run in untouched. He subsequently converted his try to bring the Irish lead to 18-33 with 20 minutes to go.

The momentum further swayed in the Wanderers favour as Old Albanians had to go to uncontested scrums due to all their front row players being forced off the pitch. It's horrible day to be part of a scrum that just cannot seem to get any traction, but it was about time the Irish pack got their moment of sunshine and dominate an opposition scrum.

The rest of the game was somewhat strewn with handling errors from both sides, forced and unforced, and with the Romans now guaranteed possession at their own scrum, they managed to get a foothold in the games and started pressuring the Irish backs into making their tackles. After a period of tough defence in the Irish half, Albanians finally got their third try of the game which they converted.
The Wanderers responded almost immediately through a Jack Brewerton try to leave the final score at Old Albanians Romans 25-40 London Irish Wanderers

The Wanderers have Tring RFC 2nd XV next week at home as they look to build on a good performance and finish the season strong.

Wanderers Team:
1. Mufaru Mataurwa
2. Ed Cockman
3. Luke Green
4. Matthew Cassin
5. Mark O’Mara
6. Ryan Bushell
7. Raef Murphy
8. Ryan Lanfear
9. Patrik Vavra
10. Ben Stephens
11. James Madle
12. Patrick Culligan
13. Jack Brewerton
14. Chris Mackay
15. Kyle O’Mahony
16. Reece Finnerty
17. Jarred Murray

Scores
TRY: O’Mara, Madle, O’Mahony (2), Stephens, Brewerton
CON: Stephens (5)

Further reading