Tonbridge Juddians 12 Rosslyn Park 46: National League 1 match report

By David Challis

Tonbridge Juddians' final home game of the National League 1 season ended in a 46-12 defeat to Rosslyn Park.

More than 300 supporters attended the final pre-match lunch of the campaign at the Slade, while many more turned out for the match, but they couldn't cheer Judds to victory.

Unsurprisingly, high-flying Park started the faster and their superior pace in the backline resulted in four quick tries.

TJs managed to build back into the game before the half-time break. Strong carries up the middle and ill-discipline from the visiting defence allowed Tonbridge to work key field position and eventually the pace of their phase-play wore Park down.

Kyle McGhie was the grateful recipient as he used excellent power to dot down the in the corner, with Tom White slotting the extras expertly from the touchline.

Unlike the first half, Judds came out of the blocks much the faster in the second and were rewarded when White found Hugo Watson with an excellent crossfield kick. Watson then offloaded beautifully to Duncan Tout to dot down in the corner to make the score 29-12.

Tonbridge then enjoyed a strong 10 minutes but squandered a number of opportunities, with line breaks from Alex Reid, Matt Foulds and Will Colderick all ending when the final pass wasn’t executed.

Park began to build back into the game and took the opportunity to take three points when available, building an almost-insurmountable lead, and they ran in some late tries to finish with a flourish.

Bottom-of-the-table Juddians travel to Bishop's Stortford for their final match of the season on Saturday.