Seaman’s try is just a consolation for Holt

Holt put in a brave effort on the outskirts of London but it was not enough to deny a vastly improved Romford side their third successive London Two North East win.

Although the pitch was firm and dry two hours before kick-off, steady rain conspired to make the surface challenging, with a strong wind blowing across the pitch adding to the difficult environment.

Despite the conditions Holt started brightly and kept possession of the ball well through the phases. Their scrum was clearly on top and with the lineout working well it looked like it might be the visitors' day.

Following a string of penalties, Holt were camped on Romford's five metres line and a quickly taken penalty by captain Bruce van Poortvliet was passed to flanker Jamie Seaman who ran a tight angle to power over wide of the posts.The conversion was narrowly missed and Holt had just reward for a dominant first 20 minutes.

Any thoughts that Holt would get the opportunity to build on their early success were quickly dashed however as a dropped restart gave Romford a scrum deep in Holt's half. The Romford forwards managed to wheel the scrum and a quick No 8 pick from the base was enough to see him power to the line to even the scores.

Holt reacted well and continued to make life difficult for their opposition, threatening Romford's line on numerous occasions with good carries by the forwards in the tight. But despite their best efforts they were unable to break down a committed and solid defence and conceded two tries against the run of play in the last four minutes of the half.

The first came after Holt lost possession five metres from the Romford try line. The turnover ball was moved wide on the counter-attack and the Romford fullback was released to run 75m to score. Shortly after Romford won good possession from a lineout in Holt's 22m area and fed their big running second row who broke three tackles to bring the half-time score to 15-5.

Holt's day got worse when early in the second half and following a strong start Seaman was sin binned for an infringement at the breakdown.

Romford took full advantage, scoring twice in the next six minutes from set-pieces close to the Holt try line as they used their heavy forwards to good effect.

Although Holt never gave up and exerted enough pressure on the opposition for the remainder of the game to see the referee send two Romford players to the sin bin, the game had already been decided by this point and there was no further scoring.