Old Albanian close the gap as title race bursts back into life

In recent weeks, it has been tight and tense towards the relegation zone in National Two South, but after Round 25, attention once again turned to the top of the division as the title race was reignited.

The reason why this has happened was because league leaders Cambridge had to settle for a draw away at an impressive Barnes side while the Old Albanian got a crucial win against Taunton Titans at Hyde Park. All of this now means the gap between the top two is only five points with five games remaining.

Down at the wrong end of the table, we already know that Launceston have been relegated to National Three, but Southend Saxons and Dorking are continuing to fight for survival as they look to get out of the drop zone.

However, results on Saturday have meant that those two sides are slowly being cut adrift at the bottom of National Two South and their situation now looks more perilous than ever before.

Elsewhere across National Two South, Bishops Stortford and Redruth picked up wins as they look to finish in the top four while the Redingensians and Bury St Edmunds continued their excellent recent form.

Barnes 36-36 Cambridge

Cambridge’s Stephen Hipwell scored a late try as the league leaders shared the spoils with Barnes in an 11-try thriller.

George Furbank and James Stokes crossed to put Cambridge 7-12 ahead after an early Penalty Try was awarded to Barnes. However, the home side did carry a 21-17 lead into half-time thanks to tries from Tom Gavlin and Jamie Collins with Albert Portsmouth keeping the visitors within a score of their hosts.

Stefan Liebenburg and Edouard Alteirac exchanged tries as Barnes led 26-24 just after the interval before the away side went ahead again as Furbank crossed for his second of the afternoon.

A penalty from Tom O’Toole and a score from Nicholas Blamire restored Barnes’ lead, only for Hipwell to rescue a draw.

The lead changed seven times during the game, with Cambridge now only topping the table by five points, while Barnes sit sixth in the standings after a run of just two defeats in 10 games.

Taunton Titans 21-26 Old Albanian

The Old Albanian are now just five points off leaders Cambridge after a hard-fought victory against Taunton Titans at Hyde Park.

Matthew Miles scored a brace while William Johnson also crossed for the OA’s with Chris May adding three penalties and a conversion.

Tries from Joe Simmonds and Nicholas Mason plus three Gary Kingdom penalties had kept the Titans well and truly in this contest throughout the match.

But the visitors held out after Miles’ decisive score on 55 minutes to seal the win.

This victory for the Old Albanian and the draw for Cambridge has certainly reignited the title race with five games left to play while Taunton’s play-off hopes now look all but over as they sit fifth in the table and 17 points behind the OA’s.

Old Elthamians 5-43 Bishops Stortford

Bishops Stortford cruised to victory over the Old Elthamians to keep their faint play-off dream alive in National Two South.

Declan Caufield gave Storford an early lead before Lee Nelmes responded for the OE’s to make it 5-7.

Centre Oliver Vidgeon was sin-binned for the hosts and that opened the door for George Cullen and Samuel Winter to both go over and put the visitors 5-21 ahead at half-time.

Nicholas Hankin claimed the opening try of the second half before both sides were reduced to 14 men as Aaron Liffchak and Rory Young were shown yellow-cards.

However, that didn’t halt Stortford’s progress as Thomas Banks dotted down try number five for the away side before Sean Edwards was sin-binned leaving the visitors with 13 men on the field.

The OE’s couldn’t capitalise on that advantage with 15 minutes left to play as Hankin and Winter wrapped up the points for Stortford.

The win for Stortford moves them 12 points behind the Old Albanian while the Old Elthamians have dropped to seventh in the table.

Worthing Raiders 8-10 Redruth

David Mankee’s late penalty snatched victory for Redruth over Worthing Raiders in a tight contest at Roundstone Lane.

Redruth were 3-7 ahead at half-time thanks to a try from Luke Hattam after Matthew McLean had opened the scoring for Worthing from the tee.

Samual Stevens and Daniel Peach were both yellow-card for either team, but Worthing went in front shortly after their departures as replacement Thomas Margetson crossed for the hosts just before the hour.

But, Mankee’s 74^th-minute penalty secured the victory for Redruth who have now moved up to fourth in the table after nine wins from their last 11 league games. As for Worthing, they are now 11^th in the table and nine points clear of the drop zone.

Clifton 29-26 Chinnor

Late tries from Rhys Luckwell and James MacKay saw Clifton come from behind to defeat Chinnor.

Chinnor led 11-16 at the break following a brace from James Tyas and two penalties from Samuel Angell, with a William Pomphrey try plus two penalties by MacKay for Clifton.

MacKay then put his side in front with two more penalties after half-time, but three more points from his opposite number Angell made it 17-19 to Chinnor.

Luckwell and the man of the match MacKay ultimately sealed the win for Clifton in the final 10 minutes of the game as they both crossed while Nathan Hannay added a consolation.

Launceston 0-79 Bury St Edmunds

Bury St Edmunds sealed a fourth straight win thanks to a 13 try demolition of already relegated Launceston.

The score line could have been worse for the visitors as Bury squandered chances and missed six conversions on their way to this huge victory.

Flanker Sean Stapleton started the rout with the opening try within two minutes and Makulusio Koroiyadi added to that four minutes later.

Matthew Edison scored four tries while Shaquille Myers, Chris Snelling, Chris Lord and Josh Walker also touched down throughout the afternoon.

Bury were also awarded a Penalty Try while Joe Lawson bagged himself a brace as the away side completely outclassed Launceston who remain winless after 25 games this term.

Redingensians 26-21 Southend Saxons

The Redingensians held of a fightback from Southend Saxons to stretch their winning run to six matches.

Robbie Stapley scored for the hosts early on before James Gutteridge and Daniel Barnes both went over to give the Rams a 17-0 lead after just 15 minutes.

The home side were then awarded a Penalty Try moments after Marcus Bloomberg was sin-binned for Southend and the bonus-point was sealed inside the first quarter of the game for the Redingensians.

However, Southend hit back before half-time as Bradley Burr’s try gave them some hope going into the second half.

And that hope grew rapidly as nine minutes into the second period, Hayden Smith and Burr again had both crossed to reduce the Redingensians lead to just four points.

The visitors continued to press throughout the second half but could not find a way through and had to settle for a losing bonus point as they remain in the bottom three.

Canterbury 52-39 Dorking

Canterbury picked up a crucial victory in their fight for survival as they beat relegation rivals Dorking to move eight points clear of the bottom three.

The free-scoring Canterbury ran in seven tries, fly-half Martyn Beaumont grabbing two while Oliver Best top scored with 17 points from the tee.

Lock Tommy Burns added two tries with Daniel Smart, George Micans and Mason Rosvall also going over for the hosts.

Dorking had been very much in this contest at half-time as tries from Matthew Betty and Matthew Noble as well as a penalty from Noble had made the score 21-20.

However, despite the close nature of the first half, Dorking fell away in the second period, but did have other touch downs to celebrate.

George Jackson scored early on after the break, while Armand Roux and Benjamin Marfo crossed the line in the final 10 minutes of the match.