Moseley 9 London Welsh 15

Even for Moseley there was something comforting about this opening day defeat, despite the fact it was a match they could have won.

For all the uncertainty about the Experimental Law Variations and anxiety about London Welsh’s summer transition into a fully professional team the outcome was settled by two old fashioned cock-ups. It’s good to know in this world of shifting goal-posts some things remain constant.

If eighty largely uninspiring minutes taught us little about the either sides’ prospects for the season it at least served as a reminder why openside flankers shouldn’t chip close to their own goal-lines, why wingers are best advised to stick to their sidelines and why props should try to stay out of the fast lane as much as possible.

Failure to observe these basic principles cost Moseley dear and means they must travel to Newbury to secure their first victory of a campaign that must not allowed to become fraught.

With as many as five National One clubs rumoured to be going down next April, nothing has been set in stone yet, Moseley currently have the wherewithal to ensure they are not among that quintet.

But they must not allow themselves to lose their shape quite as readily as they did on Saturday. Too often they provided a square peg for a round hole and on two occasions in the second half it cost them.

First, having just regained the lead courtesy of Richard Vasey’s second penalty of the match, they failed to secure the 52nd minute restart and for some reason had Richie Bignell lining up at first receiver instead of the new fly half.

While the back row forward dallied, the Exiles defence closed and panicked him into a delicate kick that he failed to regather. Instead visiting tighthead Aaron Liffchak collected, rumbled forward and then off-loaded skillfully for replacement hooker Sunia Koto Vuli to waddle over the line from no distance at all.

Ed Lewis-Pratt missed the conversion, as he did all but one of his five attempts at goal, but nevertheless Moseley had simply gifted their opponents an 8-6 lead at a time when it seemed they would be unable to fashion one for themselves.

No matter. Vasey was rather fortuitously handed another opportunity with eight minutes to go when the referee failed to spot George Davis holding on to the ball but saw, clear as day, a Welsh forward not rolling away.

Lucky or not Vasey showed just why he might be the answer to the club’s nagging fly half question when he stroked his chance nervelessly between the sticks for a 9-8 advantage. All Moseley had to do was hold on.

But with 77 on the clock Vasey sent up and injudicious clearance that was returned behind his defence. With Nathan Bressington tangled up somewhere in-field it was left to Terry Sigley to close the door.

Unfortunately, having put in a Herculean shift at the coal-face in which he was even asked to swap sides in the scrum, the veteran was not able to make up the ground quickly enough and Paul Sampson scooted past as the ball sat up and placed it behind the hosts’ line.

It proved the difference between two relatively even matched teams though Ian Smith was typically phlegmatic: “Neither side created much,” the head coach said. “We gave them the two tries and you just cannot legislate for individual errors.

“In a tight, penalty-riddled game we have to appreciate that’s the environment we are in and adapt accordingly.”

In that respect Moseley missed their captain Neil Mason, who hopes his sore shoulder will allow him to play next week.

Had the inspirational blindside been on the pitch, his competitiveness and ball carrying may have been enough to have swung the pendulum Moseley’s way.

Without him, however, their failure to secure much by way of quick possession meant they were never able to stretch the Londoners.

Bressington and Charlie Sharples barely had any ball with which to work, and the one gilt-edged chance the threequarters did get, following a Sigley inspired turnover in the opening period, was wasted by Bignell as he opted to carry into contact rather than ship out to Jack Adams on the overlap. It was not his day.

Much of that was down to his team’s failure to retain that all important shape. Smith felt the new laws played a part in that. “It is very difficult to buy crucial seconds on the floor,” he said.

“That makes it hard to enable the necessary realignment to happen. After 25 minutes of the ball in play your head has gone.”

Which would be a perfectly good reason why Moseley made the two calamitous mistakes that saw them lose at home to Welsh for the third season running.

Moseley: Binns; Sharples, Adams (Cox 40), Reay, Bressington; Vasey, Taylor; Williams (Sigley 66), Caves, Sigley (Davis 51), Arnold (Muldowney 69), Stott, Atkinson (Evans 66), Bignell, Rodwell. Replacements: Oselton, Pasqualin, Lavery.
London Welsh: Lewis-Pratt; Sampson, Rock, Mackey, Jenkins (Hopkins 20); Thomas, Walker (Runciman 48); Doran-Jones (Williams 69), George (Vuli 52), Liffchak, Lewaravu (Corker 76), Powell, Mills (Saul 69), Ball, Brown. Replacements: Marks
Referee: Mr Llyr Apgeraint-Roberts (RFU)