Top Of The Table Clash Provides Worthy Entertainment.........

10 November 2007

By Matt Aristizabal

This Saturday the two top teams in London 4 took each other on at Warlingham. Looking to avenge last week’s poor performance, London South Africa started brightly but Warlingham were the first to register on the scoreboard with a penalty early on to make it 3-0. The Warriors worked towards the opposition line and entrenched in their opponents half, their powerful scrum won against the head and Louis van Zyl put in Trevor Grundelingh (van Zyl converting) to hit back immediately. Van Zyl kicked another penalty on 14 minutes, but Warlingham’s full back did the same minutes later to keep the difference at 4 points. Approaching the break Warlingham had a spell of pressure, but LSA held out to go in 10-6 up.

LSA did begin to grind up the pitch, and retained possession near the line for Christian van Rooyen to power over on 47 minutes. Warlingham came back, and only two try-saving tackles by Grundelingh stopped them scoring. Further into the half, LSA’s best period of pressure led to a penalty which van Zyl kicked for the last score of the game to make it 18 -6 on 65 minutes. Better handling by both teams kept the sizeable crowd interested, and Warlingham could have made the scores closer but for some great LSA defence.

“For the first time this season the two top teams were playing each other which put extra pressure on both sides. But we came out on top against a very good Warlingham side that I was very impressed with,” said Bob Crooks after the game, “I’m very pleased with the way we managed the game, especially after last week - now we have the opportunity to play Trojans again, and win those 2 points.”