London Two North West London Nigerian 12 St Albans 22 ST ALBANS finally won on their travels this week, securing a hard earned victory against London Nigerian. Saints had targeted this fixture as a winnable one, but were disrupted when a couple of injurie

London Two North West

London Nigerian 12 St Albans 22

ST ALBANS finally won on their travels this week, securing a hard earned victory against London Nigerian.

Saints had targeted this fixture as a winnable one, but were disrupted when a couple of injuries on the training park ruled out two key players.

It was obvious from the outset that Saints' well organised pack had the beating technically of their much larger opponents. The away side retained possession for long periods early on but were guilty of losing patience in Nigerians 22, an attacker became isolated resulting in turnover ball.

The ball was quickly spun down the line and in no time the Nigerians' winger was touching down under the posts.

This could have dented Saints' confidence, but to their credit, they continued to dominate. The tactic was still to keep ball in the forwards but this time when close to their opponents 22 scrum half Harry Trude cleverly spotted a two-on-one overlap on the blind-side. Fly half Charlie Howard skilfully evaded the cover defence to score in the corner.

At 7-5 down Saints once again attacked. In what appeared to be a carbon copy of their previous effort, another try was added. This time it was wing Phil Tsangari who skipped through following excellent interplay between Trude, Howard and Tsangari himself. Mark Kentish converted to make the half time score 12-7 to the visitors.

St Albans stand-in captain Dan Hillier praised his side for their first half display but warned of complacency.

Only five minutes in and Saints had committed the cardinal sin. Once again from position of strength the ball was needlessly spilled. Again the London Nigerian backs had the chance to run and despite some last ditch tackles flying in Saints found themselves back in their own 22, with the ball in the Nigerians scrum half's hands. His speculative chip into space bounced unkindly for Saints and straight into the hands of the home side's centre who scored.

Saints remained in control and following another concerted attack on their opponents' line by the pack, Trude spotted an opportunity out wide. The ball was transferred from scrum half to wing, only for Tsangari to be tackled just short. However Howard had followed the move and a simple pop inside and a clinical step brought Howard his second try. Kentish added the conversion and minutes later a penalty to seal the victory.

This week Saints host Hemel Hempstead in what is the first of the reverse fixtures hoping for revenge from earlier this season over their rivals.

St Albans: Kentish, Dickinson, Morete, Alderton, Tsangari, Howard, Trude; Lemiere, Callan, O'Leary, Hillier, Sayers, Huddleston, Styles, Stanford. Reps: Kilgallon, Scanlan, Satchell.