Hawks go down fighting against league leaders

DESPITE a valiant effort against National Division 2 East leaders, Henley Hawks were ultimately outgunned by a committed and physical Old Albanian side who underlined their promotion credentials with a hard fought victory at Dry Leas last Saturday.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Hawks who had looked the better side in the first half, but were left empty handed after the visitors pulled away in the last quarter.

However, despite the defeat there were plenty of positives for Hawks’ director of rugby Luke Allen and his coaches to take from their performance. Had it not have been for a couple of missed tackles and knock-ons at crucial moments, they would have been celebrating an excellent victory.

It was the visitors who were quickest out of the blocks, and they took the lead with just a minute on the clock when centre Stephen Hihetah bulldozed his way through some halfhearted tackled to cross out wide. The Hawks weren’t fazed by the early set-back and slowly worked their way back into the match with Sam Lunnon, Callum Jones and Lailand Gordon all making hard yards.

The home side levelled the scores with 15 minutes gone when an excellent Max Titchener cross-field kick was excellently gathered by Gordon, and his deft offload to Jones saw the centre dive over in the corner.

Henley were now in the ascendency and punching holes through the middle of the visitors’ defence. A penalty advantage within the Old Albanian 22 saw the Hawks go for the attacking line-out, and from the resulting ruck, scrum half Leo Webb sniped his way round the corner to dot down. Titchener converted and Henley were in front at 12-5.

The Hertfordshire side rarely troubled the Hawks defence in the first half, but they levelled the scores just before the break when Henley were sliced open too easily in midfield for Ben Morrow to put the finishing touches on a well-worked try. Sam Jones converted and it was 12-12 at the interval.

The second half was a cagey affair with both sides cancelling each other out, but it was Old Albanian who regained the advantage when wing Josh Skelcey managed to dive over in the narrowest of spaces out wide, and with Jones’ excellent conversion, made it 19-12 with a quarter of the game remaining.

Henley refused to yield and pulled a score back when Webb grabbed his second of the game following an excellent George Wood break. Titchener was narrowly off target with the extras meaning Henley were two points behind at 19-17.

Frustratingly for the home side, the players had to come off the field due to floodlight failure which seemed to stifle any momentum they had built. With the game in the balance when they came back out 15 minutes later, it was the away side who found another gear, when second row Al Horne powered his way over from close range. Jones converted and the visitors had crucially built a two score lead at 26-17.

Despite opportunities to pull a try back within the last few minutes, Henley couldn't capitalise, crucially knocking the ball on in excellent positions. Instead of coming away with two bonus points for their efforts, which their performance deserved, they were left empty handed.

Henley Hawks: Wood, Scott, Jones (Busby, 56 mins), Gordon, Titchener, Webb, Fakatou, Hayhow, Adablah (Shpylka, 31 mins), Goodison (Benning, 38 mins), Elsey, Basil (Bailey, 40 mins), White S, Lunnon (O White, 61 mins). Replacements: Shpylka (Adablah, 64 mins), Bailey, Benning, Busby, O White.