It was not a great day at the office for London Nigerian as they came up against a focussed and committed Tabard outfit that bore no relation to the team comfortably disposed of last season. 4 tries and a succession of penalties from Tabard’s impressive kicker toward the end of the 2nd half compounded the 7 – 0 half time deficit and condemn Nigerian to defeat.

The match itself was a lively affair and the opening twenty minutes gave no clue to the eventual outcome. Nigerians started brightly with centre partnership Shelling and new signing, ex Orrell starlet Mike Fielding putting their opposite numbers under great pressure. The Nigerian pack initially capitalised on this pressure and looked to have the upper hand. However pressure was unfortunately not turned into points and the West London outfit were unable to trouble the scoreboard. The game was turned on its head after 20 minutes when Fielding suffered a ruptured bicep, forcing a major re-structure in the already heavily injury afflicted Nigerian starting line-up. Unfortunately the changes made caused some initial confusion, and a couple of mistakes led to a soft try for the Tabard winger; the referee blew his whistle and the Nigerians were looking at a 0-7 deficit.

The 2nd half again started brightly for Nigerian; with scrum half Mark Lam leading from the front with a series of scything runs and punching well above his weight in the tackle. However another mix-up in the midfield and a couple of poor tackles let the Tabard centre in for another soft try which was comfortably converted. A break away try from the kick off and some long range penalties left Nigerian 30 points adrift when they had actually been well in the game. Heads started to drop, and although the evergreen Ekeowa tried his best to pull the strings and launch a fightback, Nigerians struggled to stay with Tabard. One play saw Ekeowa, beat two men with a side step and embark on a 40 metre run down the wing; however a marvellous cover tackle from the Tabard full-back spoilt the moment.

Nigerians fought to the end and through Lam and the effervescent Akin-Olugbade they went close to restoring some pride, however it was not meant to be. For large swathes of the game it was all to play for, Saturday was to an extent an aberration, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. However there were a couple of positives, Guy Roberts and Oggy Nwoke made encouraging debuts for the 1st team, especially Roberts who gives the team added strength and depth at prop and Neal Fetterman proved he is equally adept at both hooker and flanker with a couple of heroic try saving tackles. Next week the team are looking forward to the return of at least 6 first team regulars and a return to the form of the previous week. Training should be tough this week with a lot of people owing their team mates and coaches a large dose of commitment over the next couple of weeks.

Report by Ian Morrison

Man of the Match: Neal Fetterman – easily the most consistent performer in the four rounds of the league thus far. Did not let an out-of-sorts lineout affect his efforts in open play.

1. Hisham El-Marazki

2. Neal Fetterman

3. Steve Hanlon

4. Ian Morrison

5. Babs Kehinde

6. Leon Barrett

7. Maynard Ahukanna

8. Jemi Akin-Olugbade

9. Mark Lam

10. Ugo Ekeowa

11. Bankie Irele

12. Ali Shelleng

13. Mike Fielding (r: Roberts, 20mins)

14. Oggy Nwoke

15. IK Iroche

16. Guy Roberts