By Elliott Josypenko
March 20 2004

A severely depleted Bees side were always likely to struggle as 11 first teamers were either missing or out of position. It was ironic that the Bees lost to a Welsh side that they also lost in a similar way to in November.

Pertemps Bees 18-31 London Welsh

20/03/2004 2PM

Sharmans Cross Road

Bees Team Position London Welsh Team Jim Thorp 1 Steve Millard Alan Hubbleday 2 Chris Ritchie Matt Long 3 Lorne Ward Neil Fletcher 4 Tim Collier Rob Walton 5 Dave Ramsey Pete Knight 6 Rich Griffith Nathan Carter 7 Martin Anayi Jim Jenner 8 Matt Fitzgerald Tom Richardson 9 Tom Lewsey Jason Strange 10 Dylan Pugh Aaron Takarangi 11 John Swords Shaun Woof 12 Steve Ravenscroft Luke Nabaro 13 Adam Bidwell Geoff Gregory 14 James Strong Tim Barlow 15 Dam Howells Kevin Tkachuk 16 Chris Cano Rob Merritt 17 Gregg Botterman Duncan White 18 Rob Milloy Hese Fakatou 19 Caleb Kronfeld Nick Baxter 20 Owain Walbyoff Mark Woodrow 21 Rory Greenslade-Jones Dave Knight 22 Seb Fitzgerald

Referee- Llyr Ap Gerain-Roberts

TJs- Trevor Fisher & Fred Farndon

Other Results

Pirates 48-9 Manchester

Plymouth 55-0 Henley

Exeter 14-25 Worcester

Orrell 28-14 Otley

Bedford 24-20 Coventry

The wind at Sharmans Cross today was incredible and was emphasised when the first lineout taken by London Welsh on the half way line missed everyone and actually bounced on the Bees ten metre line.

It's my view that both teams were poor. London Welsh were not up to much and in the first half our, their ball was turned over a huge number of times. A proper Bees side with everyone present would have put many points past this lot.

It was however good to blood youngsters and bring back injured players. Tom Richardson had an absolute stormer at half back and Jason Strange looked solid kicking the ball except for being a bit calm in his own 22, allowing some charge downs. Jim Thorp played very well and even scored on his comeback game. Jim Jenner was as usual a rock at 8 and played very solidly.

There were however some problems. Neil Fletcher seemed very out of place. The warm up seemed to tire him out, and the return of Charlie Danielle will be very welcome. He was unliftable in the lineouts!! Luke Nabaro doesn't seem to work very well at outside centre. Attacking wise he seems to cut good lines but defensively there are problems. Geoff Gregory played very well until he had a nightmare 5 minutes. He dropped the first simplish catch into the path of John Swords, and then also dropped another into touch.

Bees started badly when a kick was charged down and was just grounded Swords for a luckyish try. Bees were unable to get out of their 22.

Luke Nabaro managed to cut a very good line and run almost all the way before passing off very well to Aaron Takarangi to run in. Jason Strange converted a huge kick when I had given better odds of him hitting it in the tennis courts. I can't really remember what happened in what order but Welsh scored again in the corner and the Jim Thorp scored a huge pushover try almost under the posts.

Bees were quite unlucky really when Welsh scored a few more tries and never really deserved to lost that badly.

The main problem I think was the conditions, lack of players, and lack of communication. Mike Davies and Shaun Woof look immense in central defence and that seemed lacking today.

With Albion breathing down our necks it's a shame that our cup exploits have had this negative effect on the team.

Pictures are available if you click Picture Gallery on the right hand menu EJ