British and Irish Cup: London Scottish 37 - 41 Moseley

Published on 22/10/2012 00:22

London Scottish’s players will be scratching their heads this morning and wondering how on earth they they managed to end up losing Saturday’s British & Irish Cup Pool Six match against Moseley.

SCORERS:

London Scottish: Tries: Lonergan, Gidlow, Bright, Thompson, Mantella. Pens: Love 2. Cons: Love 3.

Moseley: Tries: Thomas, Hunt 2, Voisey, Mason. Pens: Thomas 2. Cons: Thomas 5.

This 41-37 defeat leaves them with a mountain to climb if they are to reach the knockout stage after they also lost their opener to Gala.

It could have, and perhaps should have, been so different for the Exiles, though.

Tries by back-row Ben Lonergan and centre PJ Gidlow – as well 10 points accumulated from the boot of winger James Love – put them 20-0 up against their English championship rivals early in the match.

However, by half-time, Moseley had pulled things back to 20-17 and they were the ones going forward as half-time came and went.

The Birmingham side, whose coaching team includes former Scotland cap David Hilton, soon went up 24-20 before No 8 Mark Bright’s converted try regained the lead for Scottish.

Former Edinburgh full-back Jim Thompson also scored soon after but Moseley then got another converted try of their own and this topsy-turvy encounter was now placed at 32-31 to the home side.

Moseley showed their battling qualities to once again stun the home support, scoring 10 points to lead 41-32, meaning that a late unconverted try by replacement back Miles Mantella was not enough for Simon Amor’s men.

London Scottish: J Thompson; J Love, A Reay, PJ Gidlow, G Mullen; P Godman, R Samson; A Clarke, A Kwasnicki, C Quigley, S Twomey, T Hotson, C Pennycook, M Bright, B Lonergan. Subs: M Irish, M Bloomberg, A Mackenzie, P Spivey, B Russell, R Bolt, M Mantella.

Moseley: B Robinson; O Thomas, S Hunt, A Carter, B Hunt; B Davies, S Brown; S Thorpe, A Caves, C Voisey, B Lawrence, L Mather, N Mason, B Pienaar, O Robinson. Subs: S Wilkes, D Hilton, A Lockley, N Burrows, B Pons, D Brazier, G Hughes.