Tamworth Lose Out At West Bridgford

Tamworth made the trip to West Bridgford at the weekend for their final league match of what for the most part has been a highly successful season. A season that has seen them compete in the sixth tier of the RFU competition for the first time in the clubs 99 year history and not only compete at that level but until the last few weeks were genuine title contenders.
The game kicked off in dry but gale force conditions with Tamworth playing with the wind against them in the first half making any sort of kicking game challenging to say the least. This worked against them as West Bridgford took the lead after fifteen minutes when what would normally be a standard clearance kick held on the wind and failed to make touch allowing the home sides winger to run it straight back at Tamworth at pace which made him impossible to stop and he crossed in the corner to give the hosts a 5-0 lead.
Tamworth bounced back firstly with a Danny Norton penalty closely followed by a try when Tamworth were piling pressure on the West Bridgford line the ball was recycled to Lock Joe Mason who made good yards before offloading superbly to skipper Josh Roe who crossed for a fine score. 5-10
The home side scored next when a Tamworth lineout on their own five metre line went horribly wrong the ball falling straight to a West Bridgford hand leaving him the simplest of tasks to score 12-10
Tamworth would go in at half time in the lead though as Norton slotted another penalty to send the visitors into the break with a very slender one point advantage 12-13
The first fifteen minutes of the second period were a fairly even affair with no further advance on the scoreboard. The deadlock was broken when West Bridgford scored from close range to retake the lead. 17-13
They went even further ahead with a great piece of individual skill from their scrum half catching Tamworth off guard with an outrageous dummy and ghosting around the ruck before sprinting from half way before dotting down in the corner. The conversion was added and the home side were starting to look comfortable for the first time. 24-13
Tamworth kept plugging away and gave themselves some hope with Roe grabbing his second of the day showing his immense strength to get to the line despite the close attention of the West Bridgford defence. Norton added the extra two from the tee 24-20.
The hosts kicked a penalty meaning Tamworth would have to score a converted try to force a draw from this enthralling encounter.
As the clock ran down Tamworth had to throw caution to the wind a little as they went in search of that elusive try that would make honours even and it would be the home side that would take full advantage of this as they reaped the benefit of the inevitable gaps in the visiting defence to score the killer try with more or less the last play of the game.
A score that would see Tamworth lose their fourth game in a row meaning a sixth place finish which some would say has taken the shine off what has been a great season that saw them climb to second at one point but it’s been so tight at the top all season that one bad result could see any of the contenders drop two or three places.
In reality this young Tamworth side deserve a great deal of congratulation for competing so well at this level and they will have learned so much to take forward into next season.
Attention now turns to the Papa John’s Community Cup next week where they face West Bridgford again this time at Wiggington Park KO 15.00.
Final Score
West Bridgford 32
Tamworth 20