Threes are Agonisingly Pipped at the Post

The mood in the Ignatians' camp varied between anger and sheer frustration after the visitors let slip a golden opportunity of making the Plate final which will be held at Donkey Lane this weekend.

Confidence and expectation levels had risen since the win against Hendon IIs and, for most of the game, the optimism was fully justified as the visitors were very much in the ascendancy, and so much so that the tackle count was lower in certain quarters than anticipated.

Setting out their stall ambitiously in this game, Ignatians hit the try jackpot five times in this game via Bob Ridley (two), Bish Galloway, Anthony Langan and Dave French, none of which were converted, and the visitors will reflect that they were 25-12 in front going to the final minutes.

Sadly, this game had a horrible sting in the tail as far as the blue and golds were concerned as a very late Hackney rally, added to some excellent kicking, produced two late gut wrenching tries which saw the visitors' world capsize by a single point and it was simply too late after that.

Captain Bish Galloway said: "To say I'm gutted would be an understatement. We dominated for most of the game, and I suppose that the missed five conversion and penalty attempts [mostly fromn out wide] have cost us dearly as 13 points went begging.

"It's a game we really should have won and, although I think we were harshly penalised for a crooked scrum feed, Hackney deserve some credit and, it must be said, they had a very good kicker and clearly lasted the pace well."