Tenacious Greens still looking for capital gain

Christian Georgiou’s fifth successful penalty with five minutes remaining kept an always close encounter on edge right to the end as Wharfedale finished strongly but Blackheath were able to repulse a final drive from the visitors to hang on.

So yet again a London visit proved a case of so near but yet so far for the Greens as once more they had to be content with a hard-earned losing bonus point.

Blackheath prevailed through the power of their pack. Though Wharfedale came out marginally on top in the scrum battle and mounted a powerful lineout challenge they were hard put to contain the home side’s frequent reliance on the power of the driving maul.

It was the indirect platform for two of Blackheath’s three tries and a couple of early penalties.

Wharfedale lived dangerously, conceding a second minute try when lively scrum-half Jack Walsh, the fulcrum of much of his side’s attacking play, broke infield from the back of a maul to allow fly-half Rory Teague to stroll in at the posts.

Teague missed the conversion and minutes later Wharfedale equalised when they swept out of deep defence and Nick Taylor followed up his own chip to claim the try. Three penalties apiece from Teague and Georgiou saw the lead change hands before a halftime stalemate of 14-14.

Two third-quarter tries turned the match decisively in Blackheath’s flavour. First Walsh broke clear in midfield from turnover ball and fine support play saw rampaging lock Tom Stradwick score. Moments later Tom Bason crashed over from a neat pop up pass at the line.

But Blackheath could never quite shake themselves free and Georgiou’s two penalties earned the tenacious Greens a point.