THREES MOMENTUM STALLS AGAINST OLD GRAMMARIANS

The threes' promotion hopes took a knock following a comprehensive defeat against Old Grammarians, and although it could all still go to the wire on the final day, the out and sorts blue and golds were sufficiently realistic to acknowledge that they will probably need a helping hand from events elsewhere if they are to succeed in their aim.

Captain Steve Renny, preferring to look forward rather than backward, said: "It's not necessarily terminal. We picked up five points from the re-arranged game against Southgate {the previous weekend} ,and although we lost against Old Grammarians we still picked up a further three points, which means that we have accumulated eight points out of maximum possible of ten in our last two games.

"Obviously, it would have been great to have got the win but it didn't happen for us and we didn't have the necessary cohesion. Sometimes, in rugby, it doesn't happen for you and this was such an occasion. At the end of the day we were down to the bare bones of a team, and it's just as well we managed to draft in a cou.ple of players at the 11th hour, or we wouldn't have played the game at all. A forfeit would have been the worst case scenario A special mention must be made of Alex Bucknall. Drafted in at scrum-half, he had a solid game."

The scoreline tells its own story and Old Grammarians, very much the better side on the day, carried too many guns for the blue and gold as the World's End Lane outfit avenged their pre-Christmas loss to Ignatians - leaving the home side to console themselves with a try scored by James Rawlinson in the final minutes of the first-half.

To compound their woes, the threes were left a little battered add bruised with Renny (ribs), Ray Hayes (thumb) and Charlie Hoy (sore back) all taking knocks." The skipper was still in a fair amount of pain on Sunday and we wish him a prompt and speedy recovery ahead of the Easter Tour.

Renny added: "Our final clash is against Black Horse. They're a good outfit and it will be tough but you never know. We still got an important cup tie against St Albans II to play and it's not over yet."