Park Sink Stanford in Confident Display

After disappointment last week Park were pleased to be back playing at home, despite not winning at home since the Romford festival final last year a vastly reshaped side took to the field to attempt to bring the winning feeling back to Crow Lane.

The game kicked off and it was Stanford applying all of the pressure camping Park in their own 22, but keeping composed Park sucked up the pressure and were rewarded when the ball was shipped to the wing for Bailey Finlayson to break and touch down over the line for park to open the scoring; try converted by George Bristow.

Catching Stanford off guard he ball was returned to Romford and again Park exploited the space and it was Finlayson who broke to run the length of the pitch for the second time to put Park 12-0 up. However Finlayson was lucky to go unpunished for the celebration. But then the conversion was added by George Bristow to put Park 14-0 up.

Romford were struggling for dominance within the mauls finding themselves getting turned over 8 times within the first half but maintained strong in the rucks and as per usual were not really challenged in the scrum. Unable to break through the right hand side of the pitch, they tried their luck on the left but Tom Chapman and Ryan Pooley were fearless in the tackles keeping Stanford at bay.

And it was the defense that allowed Park to turn the ball over to allow Finlayson to break to complete a first half hat-rick. Stanford were able to get some points on the board before the break as they continued to press and were rewarded with a try to go into half time with the score RGP 19 Stanford 5.

The second half kicked off and Stanford were a new side uplifted by their late first half try and controlled the entire second half and 12 minutes in gained their second try of the match leaving Romford with only a 9 point lead.

Continuing to press Park conceded a lot of silly penalties but all 15 players on the pitch were making all the tackles they needed to and Michael Courtney and Owen Flower were holding fort well in the center of the pitch. Park were soon rewarded for their solid defense when Flower was allowed to break to touch down in the corner to give park their first league win.

Final Score : RGP 24 Stanford 10

Tries; Finlayson 3, Flower
Cons; Bristow 2

As seems typical at the moment we would like to thank another player who has played his last game for the club, so thank you to Tom Chapman who has served the team well right from under 7's and has now chosen to move to Brentwood. With this we lose Scott and Louise as well who have put a lot of work into the team in manager and coaches roles.

We hope we gave you a good send off and hope this report has helpe