Welwyn soundly beaten by Woodford

IT WASN'T quite a Valentine's Day massacre, but Welwyn were well beaten 47-14 at Woodford on Saturday.

Welwyn kicked off and were immediately put under pressure by Woodford, who returned the ball upfield in a series of drives.

The visitors relieved the initial pressure with a good clearing kick to touch on the 22m line on the right. After winning the lineout, they were awarded a penalty for offside, taking play up to halfway.

Woodford managed to clear to touch and moved the ball to their right when a kick ahead was knocked deliberately into touch by centre Wayne Child to avoid the ball reaching the winger.

The resulting penalty was converted to give the home side a 3-0 lead after seven minutes play.

From the restart Woodford kicked to touch on the Welwyn left but the visitors won the lineout.

Play moved back to the halfway where Welwyn were penalised for offside.

From the resulting clearance and lineout, Woodford moved the ball to their right and created an overlap for the winger to score near the posts.

This was duly converted to give the home team a 10-0 lead.

Winger Scott Clewlow then made a superb break. When tackled, he slipped the ball inside to Wayne Child, who was able to take the ball over halfway out for an excellently worked try.

This was converted by Gareth Hughes to reduce the arrears to 10-7.

But the Essex side extended their lead with a penalty soon after for 13-7.

The home team soon gained possession from a lineout and were able to drive over the line to increase their lead to 18-7, with the kick being missed.

The away side were then penalised from a lineout and Woodford moved play up into the Welwyn half.

After giving away yet another knock-on, Woodford moved the ball to the right to score an unconverted try in the corner to make the half-time score 23-7.

The Hobbs Way side were able to match their opponents in the forwards.

Unfortunately, too many tackles were missed, usually by going in round the shoulders and the Woodford backs all too often took advantage of these errors.

The pattern of play continued through the second half with frequent penalties being awarded to both sides and the visitors making too many handling and tackling errors.

After about six minutes play Andy Riley's side were penalised for going off their feet at a ruck.

Woodford duly kicked the easy penalty to increase their lead to 26-7.

The hosts now started to increase the pressure, both in possession and position.

About five minutes later a mistake resulted in a Woodford try by the posts with the conversion bringing the score to 33-7.

Immediately after the restart Welwyn moved the ball out to the right and kicked ahead into the 22 where the Woodford full back made a mark and took a quick tap to restart play.

Unfortunately, Welwyn's Wayne Child tripped him as he attempted to break out and was yellow carded.

While Welwyn were one man short, Woodford were able to score two tries, both converted, by creating overlap situations. This stretched the home lead to 47-7.

Welwyn increased the pressure towards the end of the game.

After a good cross-kick, replacement winger Bradley Wiles collected the ball but could not prevent himself from going into touch five metres out on the right.

Welwyn continued to exert pressure and a drive towards the posts put one of the home team into an offside situation.

Advantage was played but eventually the referee brought the teams back to a position just in front of the posts.

From the tap penalty, the ball was quickly moved left and Wayne Child was able to charge over to score halfway out.

Gareth Hughes converted with the last kick of the match to give Woodford a comfortable 47-14 victory.

This was a frustrating game to watch with play being constantly interrupted by a whistle-happy referee but the score was a fair reflection.

On Saturday Welwyn entertain Westcliff, who are only one place above the Hobbs Way club in the league. They are also the only team Andy Riley's side have beaten so far this season.