CS, the bottom placed club in National 3 London & South East at the start of the day, gave themselves a potential lifeline with this precious away win against fellow strugglers Westcliff. Three of the five teams all now within five points of each other at the bottom will make the drop : two will escape.
The Stags, who had not won since November, played into the first half breeze on what was a bitterly cold day and much of the first twenty minutes play was in their own half but Westcliff were repelled by a combination of energetic defence, their own frequent errors and luck. Just as if it was beginning to look as if Westcliff might not have that much of a lead, if any, to take into the second half they scored twice in very quick succession, their second try owing more than a little to the Stags having shown far too much ambition in their passing when on a relatively rare excursion up field themselves.
A straight forward Killeen penalty then cut the deficit to 12-3 and there the score somewhat fortuitously remained at half-time despite CS having lost hooker Forrester to the bin towards the end of the half. Some of Westcliff’s handling had been pretty woeful it has to be said.
CS clearly still had belief, however, and they came out a new side in the second half, both literally with their on the pitch personnel but, also, in spirit and, praise be, with an evident game plan that they went on to execute! First the remainder of the sin bin period was weathered before the action started to be played out largely deep in the home side’s territory with CS getting their noses in front courtesy of two penalties and a try (Paul Unseld). Meanwhile a CS high tackle ( Claud Springer) and some attempted Westcliff retribution had seen both sides reduced to fourteen and with 60 minutes played CS had their noses ahead 12-14.
The Stags put some daylight between themselves and their now somewhat disheartened opponents with a further Unseld try on 70 minutes and although Westcliff did perk up and narrow the gap with just five minutes to go, there was little cause for further alarm during that period and CS ran out deserved 17-21 winners. The main plaudits must go to coach Gareth Jordan, who has had some fairly disappointing days recently, for getting his team bang on message in the second half. A defeat would have been disastrous but now there is hope again.
CS Rugby 1863 scorers:
Tries
Paul Unseld (2)
Con : Killeen
Pens : Killeen (3)