Fixture

St Albans RFC 27 Canton RFC 23

After two narrow, frustrating defeats, St Albans faced a home game with Canton with some trepidation.  However, the boys had backed their coaches at training, taken lessons on board and returned to form with a merited 27-25, bonus point victory.

From kick off the buns players showed the pay off and applied all that was asked from them as they asserted themselves in all areas of play. Their attacking intent and early pressure brought a kickable penalty for a 3-0 lead.  Canton replied in kind to bring the scores level. 

From the restart the Buns put pressure on Canton which resulted in debutant wing George Pain collecting the ball on front foot and dancing through from distance, conversion added. Approaching half time, with St Albans’ confidence growing, their forwards drove forward, resulting in quick ball on the front foot which allowed Walter Gilbert to time his pass to Adnan Omar who powered past the fullback to score in corner to give the Home Side a 15-3 interval lead.

Canton upped their game second half and took a greater slice of both territory and possession.  The first quarter belonged to them – and two penalties and a try took them into a 16-15 lead.  Signs looked ominous for St Albans however they continued to look for openings.    After several phases of play, a chip over the top gave the George Pain the opportunity to run in for an unconverted try and restored the Buns lead to 20-16.

The game was up for grabs, and Canton were on the attack.  With minutes remaining, they applied constant pressure and set up a nice move that resulted in a converted try to give the visitors a 23-20 margin.
 

With 2 minutes remaining, the Buns were determined to get more from an improved performance.  From the kick off, they forced a Canton knock-on.  From the resulting scrum captain Danny Millward broke in midfield and released winger George Pain for his hat trick and match winning try.  Thomas added the conversion for the Buns to take the Derby spoils – and a bonus point – in a 27-24 win.

St Albans coaches were impressed by the performances of young players Hart, Elliott, Omar, Doherty, Browett and match winner Pain.  With the season extending into May there will be further opportunities for them to develop.