Villagers no match for leaders

11:58am Tuesday 7th October 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Vigo 3-18 Old Olavians

ALTHOUGH Vigo lost on Saturday, there was much in the defeat to savour as the villagers dominated the game for long periods of the game through their forwards.

Unfortunately, Old Olavians gave them a lesson in clinical finishing.

Too often Vigo came away from their frequent visits to Olavians' territory with nothing to show, but the visitors were quite content to absorb the home side's attacks and hit them on the counter-attack.

Vigo started at pace and soon threw Olavians back, but they were caught napping with a quick throw in at a lineout.

Excellent inter-passing saw Paul Unsell speed over to open the scoring for the visitors after just three minutes.

Dan Norton kicked a penalty straight away and Vigo returned confidently against an unbeaten Olavians side.

Chis Barnett cancelled out the penalty, before Vigo hit back strongly.

A brilliant run by Dave Dunn came to nothing and this proved to be the pattern of play for the rest of the match.

Vigo simply failed to score when the opportunities arose.

Disaster followed when Vigo opted for a lineout from a penalty, the ball went loose and a sweeping move from Olavians' goal line saw ex-Northampton and Cambridge University player David Akinluyi score at the other end.

Barnett converted to give Olavians a comfortable lead.

The pattern was the same in the second half as Vigo continued to dominate up front.

Caton and Emmitt made some threatening runs, while Stuart Spiers battled away but to no avail.

Olavians' defence was well-organised and refused to buckle.

Another Barnett penalty stretched the lead as Olavians broke out.

Generally, the danger men of Unsell and Akinluyi were tackled well but Olavians were comfortable in defending their lead and remain top of the table.

Vigo's valiant forwards deserved more, but can still take solace from their performance against arguably the best side in the league.