Letchworth 2nds 30 Crusaders 28

Cruel twist

The Crusaders trip to Letchworth, saw the home team win with a last minute penalty. It was a cruel twist for the Crusaders who had led throughout the match. Crusaders led at halftime 10 - 28 in a half they dominated and could have been further ahead with a try being denied when Ethan following a ball chipped behind the Letchworth defence, he was blatantly taken out, off the ball, which the referee failed to see, setting the tone for the remainder of the match. Shortly afterwards a try scoring chance was spurned when the 'try scorer' stepped out of bounds behind the end zone whilst trying to score under the posts. A third try was denied by a foul high tackle, round the neck of the attacking Crusader. On another day it could have been 10 - 35, 10 - 42 or 10 - 49.!
Letchworth rallied in the second half after Michael Donovan was sin binned for off-side, a cumulative team penalty. During the sin binning Letchworth made use of the extra man and scored two tries to narrow the gap. Back to full strength the Crusaders spurned a couple of chances that would have sealed the win but went on to fall to a late penalty 30 - 28.
Overall it was still a winning performance when put into context of the fine performances from our U/18 contingent, all showing great commitment and maturity in their performances, so special thanks goes to Ethan, Oscar and Kyran.
Also special thanks go to our friends at Hendon who provided players so a full XV could be fielded. Thank you for making the journey and your committed performance.
Match photos can be found at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel_fear/albums/72157700228350312