Rugby Union: Waterloo see hopes of promotion fading

Jan 28 2008 by Ian Hargraves, Liverpool Daily Post

WATERLOO’S faint hopes of battling their way to promotion in National Two may well have vanished after Saturday’s narrow home defeat by a Stourbridge side whose completion of a notable double has greatly increased their own prospects.

Much depended on whether fly-half Alex Davies passed a late fitness test and that point was well proven despite a competent performance by his replacement, Jason Duffy.

The fact is that the rapidly developing Davies has played an increasingly large part in Waterloo’s recent victories and as they generally obtain relatively little possession, his presence is clearly vital.

In fact, they gave a most impressive performance for about two-thirds of the first half until conceding a try rather unnecessarily to Thomas Jarvis in the final minutes.

Two fine tries by Duffy and Nicola Mazzucato enabled Waterloo to edge 12-3 in front, before poor defence handed the visitors five points through full back Jarvis.

With the wind behind them the prospects looked good, but everything soon went downhill, probably because their physically smaller pack began to come under increasing pressure.

The second half had scarcely begun when Waterloo’s pack were driven close to their own line and forced to concede a penalty try that Brassington converted and from then on, they began to struggle.

A penalty from full-back Jonny Lowden brought the scores level again, but Brassington soon put the visitors back in front with a penalty as Waterloo were left simply hanging on.

The substitution of winger Dodd for Stringer did cut out a defensive weakness, but the replacement of forwards Jones and Nugent by Loader and Hall never achieved anything significant.

Overall, it was always a highly competitive and entertaining contest but Waterloo’s pack looked a bit too lightweight to hold on to any sort of control and, as expected, the highly creative Davies was badly missed.