Enfield Ignatians succumbed to the sucker punch of a last minute try as Harrow won 17-15 in a tense London Two North-West clash before they host Stockwood Park on Saturday.
On the defensive for most of the first half, Ignatians kept themselves in the game and tried to make the most of their limited opportunities to lead 8-7 at the break following an opportunistic try from Cairo Sango and a penalty from Jake Bates.
County winger Sango certainly executed his chance well and, with the Harrow defence getting in a right tangle after a mix-up between the winger and the full-back, the stage was set up perfectly for the youth section graduate to pounce.
The authors of a much improved second-half display, Ignatians, despite an early sin-binning, engineered the perfect reply to Harrow’s second try after Bates burst through the gap of the Harrow defence for the visitors’ next score.
The fly-half’s successful conversion gave the Blue and Golds a narrow 15-12 lead but Ignatians failed to put the game to bed.
Enfield were punished at the death with a last-gasp try as they lost another bonus point for the third time in six league games.
Coach Ali Cook said: “We need consistency of effort and application although I can’t fault the effort of the players in the second half.
“In the first half we needed to be on our mettle, whereas in the second period, we needed to put the game away.
“We had the opportunity to pump the ball into the Harrow 22 and make them play but we didn’t and we need to be savvier.”
Ignatians Seconds secured a default 25-0 win over The Mount as the latter side conceded in the Herts-Middlesex Merit Table Two fixture.
And it was a similar story with the threes who were awarded a 25-0 win over Biggleswade IIs in Herts-Middlesex Merit Table Four.
A combined Ignatians U16s and U17s continued its rich vein of form with a confident 24-5 win over their Eton Manor counterparts at Donkey Lane.
The blue and golds ran in four tries via Lawrence Loo with two and Lucas Yoxall and Sam Jones - two of which were converted - to run out comfortable winners.
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