Sedgley Tigers coach Steve Hazzelby rued missed opportunities and a succession of conceded penalties as the Park Lane outfit lost 20-11 at home to National One new boys Dings Crusaders last weekend.
It was a second defeat in three games at the start of the new campaign and came on home soil in front of a disappointed crowd.
Hazzelby said: “This was an extremely disappointing result, especially as we were denied the losing bonus point.
“But all credit to the visitors who defended well all day and took their chances well.
“We had opportunities to win, especially in the first half, but we cannot afford to give away penalty after penalty and come away with the points.”
The Bristol-based visitors had started well with one win and one loss and the early exchanges were even with Dings having the majority of the possession in the first five minutes.
Sedgley’s set-piece was good and it was from a lineout in the visitors’ half that the ball was moved quickly to the left where winger Rhys Henderson made a good line break to feed Oli Glasse, who went over in the top left-hand corner. However, the pass back to him was adjudged to have gone forward so the try was disallowed.
Sedgley did put a lot of pressure on the Dings defence in the first half, but to their credit, the visitors stood firm and it was they who scored first on 21 minutes with a well-worked try for their flanker in the bottom right-hand corner. They added the difficult conversion to go 7-0 up going into the last 20 minutes of the half.
They increased their lead 10 minutes later with a second score after a good line-break and offload to put them 14-0 up.
The hosts responded well, gaining territory deep in the Dings 22 and from a penalty five metres out, it looked like hooker Ben Gregory had put the ball down on the line. However, the referee said he did not see it as he was on the opposite side, so another try was disallowed.
Dings went into the break leading 14-0, much against the run of play, and it was an extremely frustrating half of rugby for the Tigers who had two tries disallowed and another two which they should have scored.
Despite this, they were confident they could turn the game around in the second half playing down the slope with a slight wind behind them.
They got on the scoreboard after four minutes with a penalty from fly-half Warren Seals and a second shortly after to make it 14-6. And they continued to test the Dings defence at every opportunity.
But they gave away too many penalties which enabled the visitors to clear their lines time after time. They were then awarded another penalty in the hosts’ half which they converted to extend their lead to 17-6 after 68 minutes.
A well-worked try saw replacement centre Matt Law touch down in the right-hand corner to put the Tigers within touching distance at 17-11 with five minutes to go.
However, the comeback was not to be and another penalty for Dings in the last play of the game gave them the points.
This Saturday Sedgley travel to Leicester Lions aiming to get back to winning ways.
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