It’s not how much of the ball you have, but how you use it that counts: a lesson Rosslyn Park handed out to Sedgley Park at Roehampton on Saturday as they won 40-18.

The ‘Tigers’, from Manchester, had the ball for a greater proportion of the match overall than did their hosts but – in the face of some good tackling, and perhaps to a certain extent their own lack of ideas – they still found it difficult to consistently cross the gain line, and only rarely visited the home 22.

By contrast Rosslyn Park always looked both dangerous and full of ideas, particularly as they pulled away in the second half.

From the start a period of Sedgley possession yielded little, but when home centre Dom Shabbo picked up the ball at speed some smart interplay with Nev Edwards and Steve Parsons sent lock Dan Lloyd-Jones through to score, converted by Ross Laidlaw for 7-0 on five minutes.

Almost from kick off, a good kick by Robinson had play back in the visitors’ 22 but this time the defence prevailed.

Sedgley had their best period of play where they camped on the home 5 metre line, but without looking able to penetrate the defence. However they did not return empty handed when centre Matt Riley slotted over a 17th minute penalty, for 7-3. Then four minutes later the same player took advantage of a rare instance of slack tackling to slice through the home defence and convert his own clever try to put the visitors 7-10 in front after 21 minutes.

Stung, Rosslyn Park were straight back on the attack, Edwards bursting through the middle but his pass outside unluckily bisected the two players wide of him. The pressure built up with a series of pick-and-drives; Sedgley defended well but had no answer when the ball was whipped along the line, then back inside where Steve Parsons lurked in front of the posts to run a good diagonal line to score. Laidlaw converted for 14-10 on 29 minutes.

Sedgley were far from finished but a long period of attacking possession failed to produce a scoring opportunity until the home defence sinned and Riley stepped up to nail the penalty to bring his side to within a point, with 5 minutes to the interval.

This again served only to stir the home side. A couple of good runs from John Rudd nearly bore fruit, a penalty was hammered to touch inside the visitors’ 22 and Sedgley were sufficiently pressurised at the scrum to yield a free kick in dangerous territory. Just as it looked as if the defence had held out some quick recycling saw Shabbo scamper over to score out wide. Laidlaw’s narrow miss at the conversion attempt was the last play of the half and saw Rosslyn Park take a 19 – 13 lead into the second period.

Sedgley Park emerged fired-up for the second half, but again looked to be short on ideas as to how to convert this into points. But then centre Fergus Owen received the ball and found a way around the outside of the defence up his right wing to score for 19 – 18, a rare lapse in a generally tight defence, but Riley could not quite manage the conversion.

Just as it looked as if a tight match might be in prospect Rosslyn Park found a couple of gears they had in reserve. A superbly executed rolling maul sucked bodies in, getting deep into Sedgley territory before forcing a penalty. Laidlaw kicked it to touch and from the catch and drive hooker Dan Richmond was bundled over to score, Laidlaw adding the extras to extend the lead to 26-18 after 50 minutes.

Rosslyn Park were now beginning to fire. Nick Huggett wrested possession in open play, presenting the ball to Laidlaw whose superb diagonal grubber kick took his team right back to the danger area. A penalty 11 metres into the Sedgley half grazed the post. Eventually a drive into the 22 saw the ball passed out wide on the right where Miles Mantella streaked over to score, extending the lead to 33-18 with Laidlaw’s conversion.

It now really was all Rosslyn Park. A great move up the right nearly paid off, but Mike Baxter had put a foot in touch. Midfield possession was turned over and the ball released to Rudd but the winger was forced into touch just as the try looked likely. Prop Laurence Ovens even tried a deft grubber kick over the goal line but a defender got there first. From a scrum just outside the 22 Rudd looked certain to score but the referee – extremely harshly – ruled there had been “crossing”.

Sedgley, out-gunned but still game, tried to get back but knew it was not their day when, pressurised at their own scrum, the ball emerged in the wrong place, was hacked on by Rosslyn Park for Miles Mantella to run after it, add a more subtle kick of his own before scooping the ball up at full tilt to hare over the line. A wide angled conversion from Laidlaw was the final kick of the match at 40-18.

Park: Edwards; Parsons (Mantella), Shabbo, Robinson, Rudd; Laidlaw; Barr (Baxter); Huggett, Richmond, Ward (Ovens); Lloyd-Jones, Anderson; Rowland (Lock), Campbell (Barrett), Trayfoot.

Park scorers: Mantella (2T), Lloyd_Jones (T), Parsons (T), Shabbo (T), Richmond (T), Laidlaw (5C)