Some woeful defending saw Rosslyn Park thumped by Cambridge. It took less than a minute for Cambridge left winger Oli Petrides to get round the visiting defence for the opening try, converted by fly half Ben Penfold for 7-0.

Harry Leonard, playing at centre, steadied the ship for Park with a third minute penalty, but five minutes later the other Cambridge winger, Laurence Hutchinson breached the defence with a slanting run, Penfold converting for 14-3.


Park under pressure

Fly half Oli Grove kicked a penalty for Park on 16 minutes, and Park looked to have every chance of getting back into the game. But again they conceded a try, this time to home centre Albert Portsmouth.

Given a penalty five minutes from the interval Leonard opted to take the score to 19-9.

Three minutes later Park’s defence again went absent without leave for Hutchinson to grab his second try, converted by Penfold, bringing up the four-try bonus for the home side.

However, flanker Harry Hudson restored some hope for Park, scything through for a try on the stroke of half time, Leonard converting for 26-16 at the break.

A ten point margin looked possible to overcome in the second half. Leonard had a penalty chance to put Park within a converted try, but narrowly missed.

Things took a turn for the worse for Park when Hudson was shown the yellow card.

From the 68th minute Cambridge blitzed three tries in nine minutes past a stunned defence. Prop Ehren Painter crashed over for the first, Hutchinson completed his hat-trick and centre Matt Hema went through unmolested to extend the lead to 45-16.


Alfie Dudman-Jones scores for Park

Playing for pride, Park looked to have added some respectability to the score when winger Alfie Dudman-Jones got past the home defence during added time, Leonard converting for 50-23.

But a miserable afternoon for Park was completed when missed tackles again opened up the defence to give Portsmouth his second try and take the final score to 50-23.

Park: Robinson; Dudman-Jones, Crane, Leonard, Marfo; Grove; Brand; Nwakor, Bellamy, Lovell; Spivey, Gray; Taggart, Hudson, Ovens.
Bench: Hughes, Farrell, MacPherson, Gash, Jenkins
Park scorers: Barnes (T), Spencer (T), Leonard (2P, 2C)
Parkn scorers: Hudson (T), Marfo (T), Leonard (2P, 2C), Grove (P)

Looking forward to next Saturday’s match, Rosslyn Park Head Coach, Kieran Power, said, " Caldy are a physical side with some dangerous runners in their back three. We need to be defensively abrasive, and accurate with our possession, to control the game and get a result at home”.

Next Saturday Park play at home last season’s National 2 North Champions, Caldy, kicking off at 3:00PM.

Charlie Addiman

Images: David E Whittam

October 16, 2017