London Two North West Imperial Medicals 18 St Albans 11 Having gone down by two points last week to the third placed team, St Albans knew they would be in for another tough fixture at second placed Imperial Medicals. For once the conditions were good and

London Two North West

Imperial Medicals 18 St Albans 11

Having gone down by two points last week to the third placed team, St Albans knew they would be in for another tough fixture at second placed Imperial Medicals.

For once the conditions were good and St Albans started particularly brightly, taking the game to the home side. However, after 10 minutes of pressure Saints had nothing to show for their efforts.

With one of their few forays into Saints territory, Medics were awarded a penalty which they duly converted.

Five minutes later Saints spilled a decent attacking ball. Medics took full advantage with a sweeping move that resulted in Ed Coy being sin-binned for being offside.

Saints struck a penalty from stand-off Charlie Howard but with little more than seconds remaining before the reappearance of Coy, Medics struck a hammer blow. From the home side's scrum just five metres out, Medics used their numerical advantage to score in the corner.

Turning round at 11-3 down Saints knew they were still in the game. In the second half the visitors' more experienced pack were taking control of set plays. It was clearly only a matter of time before one of these plays resulted in a score with captain Justin Joubert eventually touching down, although the conversion was missed.

Saints needed to defend well. This was not to be and a lapse in concentration from the opposition's restart gave possession back Medicals way. A well worked move from close out saw their winger slide in to put Medics 18-8 up.

With 10 minutes to go, the Medics' open-side was penalised for the umpteenth time. It was perhaps surprising that the referee had waited all this time before going to his pocket again. Howard slotted the penalty to narrow the margin to one score.

With their man advantage, it was now all St Albans but unfortunately everything they threw at the home side was repelled.

St Albans prop Brenton Lemiere was named Man of the Match.

St Albans: Dickinson, Coy, Alderton, Sharp, Tsangari, Howard, Hissey; Lemiere, Callan, O'Leary, Hillier, Sayers, Huddleston, Bickle, Joubert. Reps: Mineikis, Styles, Trude