After a successful first half of the season with 3 league wins from 3, expectations were high for our 10th January meeting with Weybridge Vandals, especially as we sat at the top of the table and they were bottom with 3 losses from 3. But this also meant it could be one of those 'banana skin' games, especially being on FA Cup weekend, and sadly so it proved.

We made a slow start to the game with Weybridge enjoying all the possession and territory for a good 5 minutes or so and we also had to make an early substitution with Chris Lipczynski coming off injured and Harry Fisher coming on. Despite this, after one of our first forays into their half Harry was put clean through and appeared to have scored but he mistook the 5m line for the try line and so failed to ground the ball correctly. Very bad luck, but we had showed we could break their defence.

After this we conceded a succession of penalties and our kick chase was also poor, with first up tackles being missed, allowing them to counterattack. Rucking was also poor, as was some of our decision making - there seemed to be a lot of Christmas rust in the system and a lot of players were far from their best. Despite this when we won ball we looked threatening and we soon managed to build an attack and then Tom Cribbens crashed over for a try on the 22nd minute, giving us a 5-0 lead.

From their kick off we caught the ball, won the ensuing ruck and attacked through our backs. However, a miscommunication meant a pass bounced off the intended recipient's head and straight into the arms of a grateful Weybridge player, who raced away to score under the posts. We were now 5-7 down and the half time whistle blew.

Early in the second half we had a line out in our own half and a wild reverse pass unnecessarily put us under pressure and Weybridge soon won a kickable penalty, but fortunately for us they missed. A long 22 drop out and good chase gave us good field position and a penalty and after moving the ball we looked like scoring but a forward pass prevented that. Silly errors were typifying our play.

Despite this we managed another bit of possession and after we won a scrum against the head Matt West went over for a try and we were back in front and 10-7 ahead. We ran back their kick off and won 2 penalties, so at this point we should have settled, but we then knocked on the ball at the back of a scrum and very poor defence from the subsequent scrum saw their left wing evade numerous tackles and make a 40m gain into our 22, which lead to a try to them and so the lead changed hands once again. We were 10-14 down.

Sadly after this we lost our shape and what looked like an ordinary attack on halfway saw them score again after we once again misused numerous tackles, this time down the right hand side. All of sudden we were 10-19 down with 5 minutes to go and facing an unexpected defeat.

But back we came and managed to get Harry got over the line but he was unable to ground the ball (again!). We retained possession though and after several rucks Toby Carter scored to bring us back to 15-19.

A nail biting final few minutes saw us attack repeatedly from their kick off and go through several phases with a succession of rucks, but despite enjoying 3 man overlaps on two occasions we failed to score, with basic skills deserting us at the critical time and the game was lost. Jamie Hughes was also denied the winning score when he pounced on their loose line out ball but the ref failed to see the grounding.

This was our worst performance in the league this season and too many players failed to step up. Weybridge deserved their win as they showed more desire, certainly in the first half, and in addition to our lack of desire and intensity we were also inaccurate in attack and weak in defence. We had our chances but didn’t take them and gifted them all 3 of their scores.

Plenty to work on in practice next week!!

Man of the match was Matthew West (who played with typical determination and commitment throughout).