Welwyn 1st XV vs Fullerians Match report

Welwyn got their league season back on track with an away victory on Saturday.

After losing at home to bogey side Ruislip the previous week, Welwyn returned to winning ways against Watford club Fullerians.

With three wins and a draw from their opening six London Three North West fixtures, the Handside club were quietly confident of beating a Fullerians outfit bottom of the table and still searching for their first win of the season.

The visitors emerged triumphant, but only by six points after a closer than expected county derby.

Any Welwyn complacency was quickly erased as Fullerians were awarded a penalty almost straight from their kick-off.

The chance was missed but it served as a timely warning shot across the Welwyn bows.

Welwyn, however, didn't pay heed to Fullerians' sign of intent and worse was to follow.

From the base of a scrum close to the Welwyn line, the Fullerians scrum-half chipped the ball over the melee and collected it himself for an unconverted try and 5-0 lead.

Suitably chastened, Welwyn responded almost immediately with a forward surge. The visitors forced a penalty which Gareth Hughes kicked from in front of the posts to pull back three points.

Welwyn, led by the forwards in the tight, the line-outs and in the loose, dominated the game for some 20 minutes, both territorially and in terms of possession.

However, the backs failed to capitalise on this supremacy in the front eight until Fullerians were forced to concede an easy penalty for Hughes to kick Welwyn 6-5 ahead. This lead was quickly overturned with a Fullerians penalty to make it 8-6.

Welwyn's backs then clicked into gear with a superb length of the pitch run from Jon Child, who was halted just inches from the posts.

The visitors won the ensuing scrum for Dave Orton to produce a typical No 8 pick up and drive over for a try. Hughes converted for a 13-8 lead.

Fullerians first missed a penalty from the restart and then had a man sin-binned for some over-robust play on the stroke of half-time.

Welwyn brought on three reserves during the opening minutes of the second half, with Neil Smith coming on at prop, Mike Shirley slotting into the second row and Kyle Birkin taking his place in the centre.

Fullerians reduced the deficit to just two points with a penalty as Welwyn's newcomers settled in.

This was promptly nullified by another Hughes penalty to extend Welwyn's advantage to 16-11.

With the Welwyn backs finally starting to string together a few passes, another fine run by Child almost resulted in a try for Luke Williams, who unfortunately lost the ball in the tackle.

Minutes later some further slick handling saw the ball moved swiftly across the backs from James Turnbull on the left to Kyle Birkin for an unconverted try in the right-hand corner.

Blood injuries resulted in further changes and Welwyn were subsequently reduced to 14 players for the closing stages, having used all their allowed substitutes.

Fortunately this coincided with Fullerians being similarly reduced to 14 by yet another player being sent to the sin bin.

This infringement also gave Hughes another penalty chance to make it 24-11.

The final five minutes of the game proved to be nail-biting, with Fullerians gaining the upper hand.

The Fullerians full back picked up a loose ball in his own 22 and ran the length of the pitch to score a try under the posts that was converted to bring the home side right back in it.

With their lead cut to just six points, Welwyn were pinned down under their posts for the remaining couple of minutes.

The visitors desperately fought to hold on to their lead and prevent Fullerians scoring a converted try, which would have brought them their first win of the season.

The cliff-hanging climax was a credit to both sides.

Fullerians battled all the way in search of that elusive first win and visitors Welwyn doggedly kept them out to successfully maintain their 24-18 advantage for a hard-fought victory.