Rosslyn Park got on the wrong side of referee Veryan Boscawen and it cost them dearly. Twenty-one penalties, four yellow cards and two penalty tries were awarded against the visitors to bring their winning streak to an end. But the match officials were not responsible for Park’s own errors which were just too many against a side as good as Moseley.

The match started well for Park, who had a clear edge in the opening exchanges, penalties in the seventh and twelfth minutes allowing fly half Harry Leonard to kick his team to a 6-0 lead.

However, when Moseley began to put some attacks together Park began to get on the wrong side of the referee and a succession of penalties allowed the home side to ratchet up the pressure. The dam broke at a scrummage near the Park line when a penalty try was awarded on 24 minutes and replacement prop Mo Nwakor sent to the sin bin. Fly half James Williams converted for a 7-6 home lead.

With Park a man short home winger Ed Sheldon found room to counter attack and crossed the line to extend the lead to 12-6.


Park strides out

With the penalty count steadily rising Park lock Richard Boyle was also sent to the bin. Moseley took full advantage when prop Owen Hills went over from close in and Sheldon grabbed his second try to nail the bonus point and a 26-6 lead at the interval.

Park came out fired up for the second half. After 20 minutes of fairly even play the home side got to increase the lead when awarded a penalty, Williams obliging with three points.

Park came storming back, and this time it was Moseley who lost a player to the sin bin. With ten minutes remaining Park drove over for hooker Tom Vaughan-Edwards to touch down. Five minutes later flanker Harry Hudson got over from a pick-and-drive. Leonard converted both for 20-29 and at least a losing bonus point looked on the cards.

That prospect was eliminated with a minute to go when Moseley drove towards the Park line. They were stopped, but illegally and the referee awarded a penalty try, converted by Williams for 36-20, and for good measure Nick Lovell and James Inglis were sent to the bin.

Rosslyn Park Attack and Defence Coach, Scott Sneddon, said: “It was a very frustrating performance. We knew that it was going to be a tough place to visit but we simply weren't good enough.

“We need to understand that going away to places like Moseley, there are some thing you simply cannot control but there are certain things you can. The areas we could control, we weren't accurate enough and came second best.

“We had chances in the first half that we should have taken, but two handling errors in their 22 and quick counter attack meant we were under our posts twice within 6 minutes and we lost any momentum we had.

“Credit to Moseley, we knew they had some dangerous runners in their backline and they capitalised on our poor discipline and accuracy.

“We had an honest chat at the end of the game and the players know that is was a below par performance. You simply cannot win a game of rugby with that number of handling errors, coupled with over 20 penalties and 4 yellow cards”.

Looking forward to Saturday’s home match against Macclesfield (Kick Off 3:00PM) he said, “We will dust ourselves off knowing we have a big couple of weeks ahead of us. Macclesfield are scrapping for their lives and will be tough opposition this week.

“We cannot afford anymore below par performances and maybe we've papered over some cracks the last couple of weeks by getting the wins.

“We've been on a great run and credit to the boys for putting shifts in week after week, but we must now push ahead to target the top 4 come the end of April.

Park: Robinson; Watkins, Henderson, Reay, Kohler; Leonard; Gash; Lilley, Vaughan-Edwards, Wade; Spivey, Boyle; Frampton, Hudson, Ellis
Bench: Nwakor, Lovell, Inglis, Crow, Grove
Park scorers: Vaughan-Edwards (T), Hudson (T), Leonard (2P, 2C)

Charlie Addiman

Images: David Whittam

February 5, 2017