BETTER BUT STILL LOTS TO WORK ON

SENIOR RUGBY RESUME: OCTOBER 14

ENFIELD IGNATIANS again suffered on the scoreboard but, compared to the previous displays against Ruislip and Hitchin, there were some rays of bright sunshine despite the magnitude of the 69-7 defeat to London Scottish Lions at Donkey Lane.

These came in the form of a positive first-half display in which the hosts, buoyed by a try from Matt Georgiou, converted by Ben Roper, delivered a combative display, and they were far from down and out at 20-7 down.

However, the wheels came off in the second-half when the Exiles ran amok, despite a bonanza performance from the Ignatians’ Man of the Match Tom MacDougall (seen here in the thick of it).

Incidentally, try scorer Matt Georgiou has been called up to the Cyprus squad, in tandem with the Fayaz brothers, Hadee and Fadee, which is due to face Malta in the European Conference One Pool game against Malta scheduled for November.

Head coach: Jack Wilson said: “I thought we were better defensively [in first-half] than previous weeks and, when we got into our stride, I thought we played quite well.

“London Scottish Lions are a good team and, after fashioning intercept and tries from tap penalties, our heads dropped somewhat in the second-half. However, as said, it was much better in parts than in previous weeks.

“There’s a lot to work on still. However, despite our run of three defeats, we’ve had good numbers in training. We probably had our best training session in the lead-up to the London Scottish game, and need to keep working away.”

Ignatians are on the road this Saturday when they travel to west London to face Chiswick in the Counties One Herts-Middlesex league clash.

Squad: Tom Buckland, Glory Makabukidi, Tom MacDougall, Femi Adeosun, Hadee Fayaz, Jack Wilson (Ben Roper 25), Paul Duke, Matt Georgiou, Sam Hatchett, Fadee Fayaz, Seyi Adeosun, Jake Baker, Ben Hammond (Matt Pollard 30-55), Euan Renny (cpt), Frank Antwi,
Try scorer: Matt Georgiou.
Conversion: Ben Roper.
MOM: Tom MacDougall