Fullerians 11pts Barnet Elizabethans 13pts

BEs had to play into the face of a strong wind at Cassiobury Park and they had to dig deep, in defence, as the home side powered towards their line - most of the opening thirty minutes was spent inside the BE 22 - but defend they did with MATT NICHOLAS and SEAN BLAKE stopping everything down the centre of the field whilst the pack also held up their opponents. The home kicker was successful with two penalty kicks but missed with two more. In between the scores, BE had a rare attack but it proved to be very fruitful: from scrum ball, the ball went out to ROSS WILKINSON and the fly half put a neat kick through the oncoming home defence for SEAN BLAKE to score the try. Late in the half, JONNY HART kicked a penalty to give his team an unexpected 8-6 half time lead.

Buoyed by this, BE took similar advantage of the wind in the second half but they seemed intent on running the ball rather than kicking into either corner. PETER MOULTON, MATT GREENWOOD and others had storming runs and JAMES ORAM was inches away from scoring a try. JAMIE WISE and his cohorts won a couple of scrums against the head and the forwards were challenging in the lineouts. BE were playing well but not totally dominating. Of more concern was the penalty count against and a more strict referee might have had a few more players, from both teams, in the sin bin. As it was, midway through the half, Fullers Captain was yellow carded for a dangerous tackle on DUMIE when the youngster was charging at the home side from a tap penalty. BE did not take advantage of the player loss: instead, a few minutes later, SEAN BLAKE was binned for handling in the loose although, in fairness, the referee was really penalising the side for persistent offences. When Fullers were restored to 15 men, they scored what seemed a vital try when they took advantage of the man over to score with an overlapping move right in the corner.

Back to full strength, BE tried to salvage the game and they achieved it when MATT NICHOLAS, who minutes earlier had been groggy from one tackle, picked up a loose pass to intercept and race through for a well taken try. BEs kept up the pressure in the closing minutes. They now face Stevenage away in the semis over the weekend of 25th/26th February. This Saturday (28th), they are at home to London New Zealand in the League at 2.15pm.

PGY