ST ALBANS may have conceded their place in the Herts Presidents’ Tankard but their preparations for the season were given a boost with a win over Welwyn.
Saturday’s game was billed as the first round of the Tankard, a competition won by Tabard last year, but St Albans did not have enough registered forwards available and were forced to concede the tie.
The teams agreed, however, to play a friendly with the season just two weeks away.
Welwyn started strongly and spurned a couple of kickable penalties in favour of probing the corners to attempt to get over for a try. Although Welwyn were dominant in the first quarter, the sides were still level at 0-0 the first break.
St Albans opened the scoring with a try by former county winger Ed Coy and led 5-0 at the end of the second quarter.
In the third quarter, Welwyn changed their strategy and elected to kick at goal from a penalty 30 metres out and Pat Lynch made no mistake to bring the scores to 5-3.
St Albans responded by creating enough space out wide for Coy to score his second try of the afternoon, which was not converted. The scores were level soon after as Welwyn domainated a scrum before touching down.
The final quarter was dominated by the visitors who got better as the game went on. Coy completed his hat trick and a further try, both converted by skipper Mark Kentish, saw St Albans run out as winners, 24-10.
St Albans’ season starts on September 14 with a visit from Hammersmith and Fullerians.
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