Ipswich 0 - Romford and Gidea Park 20

17th March 2007

Ipswich had to take a depleted team to Romford and Gidea Park following some injuries and illness. Ollie Hall & Ben Louisson stepped up to the 1st XV squad.

With Ipswich camped in the middle of the league table and Romford in fourth position and still in the promotion battle it was always going to be a tough battle.

With the vicious cross wind further hindering any attempt of flowing rugby Romford kicked off and looked the livelier team.

Ipswich had to defend the early onslaught of the powerful Romford backs and held out for 10 minutes until the Romford Captain No8 Steve Barfoot picked up from the base of a ruck and ran down the right wing to score in the corner. The conversion was missed in the driving wind.

The Ipswich side continued to defend, getting very little good possession and no opportunity to attack. Whilst the defense was holding out it was the first tackle that was proving to be the downfall. After 30 minutes of play Romford again crossed the try line, again in the right corner of the field. This came after being camped in the Ipswich 22 for some considerable time, the ball was passed out wide for a well worked score. Again Romford could not convert in the fierce cross wind. Halftime.

Ipswich kicked of the second half and kicked deep into Romford territory. For a while Ipswich got the upper hand and looked the more likely to get the next score, however handling mistakes proved costly. After 17 minutes the Romford Captain Steve Barford struck for his second try of the game to show why he is the leagues highest try scorer; With his height and weight of a typical No8 but having the pace of a winger proved extremely difficult to contain. The conversion was missed.

Ipswich with the wind slightly in their favor kicked for territory and for a while applied some pressure on the Romford defense, Romford gave away a penalty just inside their 22, but with the cross wind being what it was Christian Hadwen failed claim the points.

The game continued in the same pattern until the last minute when Romford No12 Leon Sarikovus jinked his way past the Ipswich defense from 25 meters. Again the conversion was missed.

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