Old Whitgiftians 0 v 28 Teddington Antlers

Old Whitgiftians’ league programme got off to a distinctly lacklustre start at Croham Road on Saturday as they lost 28-0 to Teddington Antlers.

Having narrowly missed out on promotion at the end of last season, and confronting opponents who themselves had only just moved up from Surrey Two, OWs could have reasonably expected a comfortable win. It was not to be.

Apart from the first few minutes, when the home side retained the ball and developed some probing attacks, Whitgiftians’ performance was unimaginative and error strewn.

Once Antlers woke up they dominated every phase of the game, and it was only some brave defensive work by individual Whitgiftians that prevented their opponents from notching up a much higher points tally.

But on other occasions the OWs collective defence was off the boil, and after 20 minutes Teddington broke clean through in the centre to score their first try.

Shortly afterwards the matched was stopped for 45 minutes while a severely injured Teddington player was given first aid on the pitch.

Once the ambulance and medics had departed the match resumed, but any Whitgiftian hopes that the long stoppage might have shifted the balance of play were quickly dispelled.

Teddington were as aggressive, noisy and in-your-face as ever.

They were skilful in creeping over the off-side line when the referee wasn’t looking, and managed to incur remarkably few penalties.

In fairness, OWs gained a not insignificant amount of possession, and once or twice developed some effective rolling mauls, but in the main the forwards’ attempts to move the ball close in were quickly snuffed out, and the more expansive moves tended to be riddled with missed passes and knock-ons.

Teddington added a couple of penalty goals before half time, and shortly after the break their fly half eluded the rather static Whitgiftian defence to score under the posts without a hand being laid on him.

Any chance of a home win was gone, and the OWs seemed to lose interest in the match.

Bodies drooped, speed around the field decreased, and there was perhaps a too easy acceptance of the inevitable result.

In contrast, Teddington powered on, adding another penalty, and an unconverted try just before the final whistle.