Wymondham pay a severe rugby penalty

Upminster 15, Wymondham 13

Wymondham earned a valuable losing bonus point away at Upminster but will rue the missed penalty in the dying minutes that prevented them from taking four points following a spirited performance in Essex.

Three games remain before the halfway stage in the season is reached and the team must now target at least two victories.

Changes in the team saw Pena Sokia moving to number eight and Stuart Lowe coming into the centre berth. An early injury to Colts vice-captain James Wyatt brought about a reshuffle with Stephen Simms moving to scrum half. Wymondham were reduced to 14 when Barry O'Sullivan was sent to the sin bin but with the Red and Black pack in a dominant mood Upminster were unable to capitalise and it was Wymondham who took the lead when Sokia went over following a big forward drive. And then Simms scored from another forward drive leaving Wymondham 10-3 at the break.

Wymondham had to play up the significant U's sloping pitch in the second half and Upminster started their fightback with a try. It was backs to the wall with Wymondham defending bravely but with five minutes to go another yellow card, this time Mike Rout was the victim.

An earlier Simms penalty had kept Wymondham in the hunt but a then second try for the U's whilst Rout was off gave the home side a two-point lead. From the restart Wymondham won a penalty right in front of the posts but someway out. The kick slipped agonisingly to the side and the chance to win had gone.

Skipper Andrew Nelson was buoyed by the performance, saying: 'We totally dominated the scrum and it was a 100pc better performance and we should have put the game to bed well before we had that final penalty chance.'

Chairman John MacKay said 'That was a great team effort from all 18 of the squad and I'm confident that we can pull things around after this performance.'