Agonising defeat leaves Ignatians in drop zone

Frustration and disappointment.

Enfield Ignatians must be heartily sick of those words after losing at league leaders Woodford by a mere point a defeat that sees them drop to second bottom in the table and into a relegation dogfight.

Despite the loss, the mood in the Ignatians' camp remains upbeat.

Club captain Rob Wyer said: "I am proud of the commitment shown by the whole team. The spirit is good and we just need to keep going. I feel sure that we will turn the corner soon."

Ignatians will now be battling with five other clubs to avoid the drop. They are more than capable of surviving in this unforgiving and dramatic league, on the proviso that they master the art of closing games. Their destiny ultimately lies in their own hands.

The disappointment will be compounded by the fact that even a half-cocked Ignatians, under fierce pressure in the set scrums, could have stolen the game from Woodford. But just when they needed to play their get-out-of-jail card, their touch deserted them.

Two Richard Marshall penalties which hit the bar summed up the visitors' afternoon. The fly-half was also off target with two other penalty attempts, one of which was well within range.

But it would be unfair to heap everything on the shoulders of the kicker. He landed two conversions one a difficult kick from the touchline.

Woodford, having clearly digested the lessons of a prior encounter with Ignatians when they were bullied mercilessly up front, were the ringmasters in the forward department, and used their maul to devastating effect to score all of their three tries. All were scored by the hosts' in-form open-side flanker, Joe Green.

Despite being driven back almost at will in the tight until the addition of Richard Peach helped shore up a creaking edifice in the second half Ignatians were forced to live off scraps.

That they went into half-time 7-5 ahead at the break, against the run of play, was due to some poor Woodford finishing, and towering performances from Wes Warren and Andy Roper. Roper, a handful around the fringes, is at the top of his game after returning from injury.

Warren is having another good season. The number eight used his impressive pace to get within yards of the opposition line before off-loading superbly to the supporting Andy Gammon for Ignatians' first try.

Inevitably, Woodford roared back in the second period and, after establishing a 15-7 lead, they were at last subjected to some fierce Ignatians' pressure. The visitors camped their way on the opposition line.

They had to be patient. But it paid off, as hooker Paul Bucknall eventually forced his way over. Marshall added the conversion and, even late in the game when the referee awarded Ignatians a penalty from the restart, there was a chance to score an unlikely victory.

It was always going to be a tall order from the half-way line and inevitably fell short. In a way, it said everything about Ignatians' afternoon.

Director of rugby Ali Cook said: "It was another gut-wrenching result.

"We could have stolen it, but we needed to limit the number of penalties we gave away as Woodford are very well versed in the art of the driving maul and they punished us in this area."