Late tries bury Welsh (From This Is Local London)

Late tries bury Welsh

11:24am Monday 7th October 2002 in London Welsh

London Welsh 22 Rotherham 49, In a high scoring match London Welsh lost to League leaders Rotherham in the National League Division 1.

A clever pass from international outside half Ramiro Pez which opened up the Welsh defence, to put centre Joe Ewens over for a try which Pez himself converted. Rotherham added another with Alfie Tooala.

In the 14th minute, Rotherham were to scored again and the conversion saw London Welsh trailing 0-21.

Welsh got on the scoreboard with an 18th minute penalty by outside half Richard Mahony, and they were steadily clawing their way back into the match. Bruno Green soon added another as Welsh trailed by 10-28 at half time.

London Welsh had the better of the first 30minutes of the second half. Wing Rory Greeenslade-Jones was almost over before the ball was worked out to fullback Lee Davies to cross.

Rotherham were able to rouse themselves in the 77th minute when Pez ghosted through the home defence for a soft try. His conversion opened the lead out to 15-35.

London Welsh still competed well against their full time professional opponents and managed to force an 83rd minute try for replacement hooker Chris Ritchie which centre Paul Farmer converted.

But Welsh's performance was marred by two late tries in the 85th and 88th minutes of time added on. Michael Wood scored both to complete his hat-trick of tries.