By Dragons' Den
December 13 2009

Two teams that very nearly didn’t make it to this stage of the season met at Sharman’s Cross Road in a game dominated by refereeing decisions. With three yellow cards and a handful of new players in each side, the margin of the London Welsh victory didn’t reflect Bees’ defensive efforts and if Bees had converted a couple of their earlier chances it could have been a very different outcome.

London Welsh went into this match holding sixth place in the league. Bees, with a record minus 13 points, languished at the bottom of the table and had seen a number of their squad head to other clubs in search of more reliable wage payments. The Welsh line-up wasn’t totally familiar either with five loan players, four in the pack plus Ben Stevenson at scrum half.  

London Welsh opened the scoring. Ed Lewis Pratt’s break took the visitors into the 22 and good support set the ball up to be moved in-field to the centres. The resulting breakdown saw a Bees player give away a penalty for use of the boot but Ed’s kick at goal drifted wide. Within a few minutes he had two further chances to kick at goal and his third penalty kick gave Welsh a three point lead.  Bees levelled the score shortly afterwards when a London Welsh player knocked on and his team mate couldn’t resist the temptation to gather the ball and give away a penalty.

Birmingham & Solihull had a great opportunity to score the first try but the resulting play led to their number eight being sin-binned. Welsh were unable to make the most of the one man advantage and Bees added a penalty during this time to take a 6-3 lead.

The Welsh line was under pressure again when a pass to the Bees’ midfield went loose and London Welsh took possession. A quick pass put Jonathan Fisher into space and he out-paced the defence to score. Lewis-Pratt’s conversion took London Welsh into a 10-6 lead.

The visitors extended their lead by a further five points when Guy Mercer saw space around the side of the ruck and a dummy pass gave him a clear run to the line. At half time the score remained 6-15.

The first chance to score in the second half fell to Aled Thomas with a penalty kick from near the half way line. Despite having the distance the kick drifted just wide. Bees continued their strong defence taking Claassens into touch just short of the line and Welsh then started to ring the changes. Runciman replaced Stevenson at scrum half and Lewis-Pratt left the field to allow Ross to take the fly-half spot and Thomas to move to full back. Ross immediately added pace to the London Welsh backline but the visitors were still unable to cross for a try.     

A penalty try was awarded to Welsh when the Bees’ scrum failed to stay down. As the referee stood under the posts to mark the try the two packs continued their dispute by trading punches. London Welsh hooker James Buckland and Rob Bell, who recently moved from Welsh to the Bees, were shown yellow cards for their part in the scuffle. Thomas converted the Welsh try and Bees restarted the game with a penalty. Score 6-22.

Welsh were forced to improvise when Paul Sampson went off injured and were forced to put Tom Brown on the wing, quite a change from his usual number 8 position! The final try of the match went to Paul Mackey when he crossed from close range. Thomas’ conversion sealed the bonus point win. Final score: Birmingham Solihull 6 London Welsh 29

London Welsh

1. Michael Holford
2. James Buckland
3. Lorne Ward
4. Matt Garvey
5. Matt Corker
6. Jonathan Fisher
7. Guy Mercer
8. Jonathan Mills
9. Ben Stevenson
10. Aled Thomas
11. Errie Claassens
12. Simon Whatling
13. Neil Starling
14. Paul Sampson
15. Ed Lewis-Pratt

Replacements:

16. Chris Whitehead
17. Dorian Williams
18. Mike Powell
19. Tom Brown
20. Nick Runciman
21. Gordon Ross
22. Paul Mackey