Enfield Ignatians lost their way badly in in the wet and the wind of Donkey Lane, having lost the proverbial five pointer 17-5 to the side propping up the table, Barnet Elizabethans, writes Jonathan Landi.

Ignatians ultimately have no one to blame but themselves as they failed to adequately tailor their game to the rigours of wet-weather rugby, and their inability to extract so much as a losing bonus point saw them slip a place in the league hit parade to tenth.

Barnet, in marked contrast, threw themselves a lifeline, having at last opened their league account at the ninth attempt this season, and the result ultimately heaps added pressure on Ignatians in their away clash against Old Millhillians on 7 December.

In a game in which the conditions were a great leveller for both sides, Ignatians struggled to escape from the half in the face of a strong cross wind, and sightings of the blue and golds in the Barnet half were few and far between.

And it was Barnet which edged the first half after Ignatians endeavoured to escape from behind their own line and, although Tom MacDougall made some precious yardage in his own 22, he was also up-ended for his pains.

Consequently, Ignatians coughed up possession as Barnet feasted on turnover ball to open the scoring, but the question mark doing the rounds was whether the player had been illegally tipped beyond the horizontal, which would have seen the try disallowed?

At the opposite end of the spectrum, it was felt that the player had landed ‘safely’, but there was no escaping that Ignatians felt aggrieved, and, late in the half, they worked themselves into some promising attacking positions on opposite sides of the field.

They were initially sent on their way following some excellent work in the lineout from captain Euan Renny, followed by a neat grubber kick from Tom MacDougall, only to hit a brick wall.

Having pulled play to the opposite side of the field, Ignatians again had the line at the mercy after winning a couple of 5m scrums, but they proved their own worst enemies after over-complicating matters, and so were bust at the bank each time.

Only a score behind at the interval, the message emanating from head coach, Gary Phillips, was to defer to the boot of Paul Duke, and to play for territory, and initially it worked as Ignatians again found themselves in close range attacking scrum territory.

However, on this occasion, they struck gold after Frank Antwi’s successful pick up from base and dart saw him power his way over, although the backrower did later cop a yellow card for his pains following a high tackle.

Again, it proved another discussion point as to whether the player had been hard done by? There’s no disputing that there was head on shoulder contact but, granted that the player was practically on his knees, he had precious little leeway in which to adjust his height.

The long and the short of it, too, was whether Ignatians that could also ill afford to lose one of their prime ball carriers at a critical juncture?, and they contrived to go badly off script as Barnet took heart and upped the ante.

In the first instance Barnet fielded a lose Ignatians’ kick as they broke the gainline and went under the sticks, before breaking through the middle and fashioning a third try which gifted the visitors a priceless 12-points lead.

The leaking of a third try for Ignatians was a fatal body blow from which they never fully recovered, although there was still enough time on the clock to get something out of the game, having won four penalties on the spin which they drilled to the corner.

Again, that priceless component composure was missing, as Storm Bert worsened, and a litany of errors meant that Ignatians, yet again, were unable to cash-in, as poor decision making and lack of a cutting edge blighted some promising approach work.

Still, it wasn’t all doom and gloom with the hard-carrying second row, Sam Rushmer, crowned the Mary Madden’s Man of the Match, with Euan Renny also deserving of a special mention following a fine all-round performance.

Euan Renny said: “It was a bad day at the office. We got into some good positions only to lose structure and composure.”
Squad: Tom MacDougall, Alfie Fordham, Wesley Chase, Ryan Loo, Carl Asare-Anderson, Paul Duke, Dan Shaw, Ken Carroll, Sam Hatchett, Nathaniel Clarke, Liam Horn, Sam Rushmer, Henry Sibley, Euan Renny (cpt), Frank Antwi, Lawrence Loo , Calum Middleton, Seyi Adeosun. (18).
Try: Frank Antwi
Mary Madden's MOM: Sam Rushmer