Boatman’s latekick ends Esher’s misery on road
STEVEN Boatman hit a late penalty to earn Esher a share of the spoils at a raindrenched Billesley Common to end a sorry string of results away from home.
You have to look to last season to find their last win away and director of rugby Tom Williams was delighted with the attitude of his players at Molesey, partic- ularly after they had conceded more than 50 points in their last away match.
And they left it late to secure the draw with Bateman showing nerves of steel to kick the penalty two minutes from time - at the end of an absorbing contest.
“Two weeks ago we went to Coventry and got absolutely turned over by a dominant pack on a muddy pitch,” he said.
“When we were driving up today through the sleet and rain the signs weren’t too positive.
“But when we got here and I saw the attitude of the boys, I thought we could come away with something.
“It took about 15 minutes for us to start playing and we forced our way into the game. I was very impressed with the character and the leadership out there.
“We’ve not won away from home since Macclesfield on the last game of last season so to get a result here against a big pack was really pleasing and should bode well for the rest of the season.”
It was the kicking of skipper Paul Roberts that kept them in contention for much of the game, his three first half penalties ensuring Esher went in at the break just 12-9 in arrears even though the home side had dominated the opening 40 minutes.
Two tries from back-row Ciaran Moore, one of which was converted by
Sam Hollingsworth, hinted at Moseley’s dominance up front and there should have been more points coming from the Red and Blacks.
Referee Matt Turvey finally lost patience with the Esher scrum at the start of the second half, sending prop Oliver Mines to the sin-bin and the hosts made their extra man count by sending full-back Andy Fluker over in the corner.
That handed them a 17-9 advantage but the game turned when Moore saw yellow and Moseley’s 14 men could not keep out replacement prop Matt Lowes as he burrowed in from close range.
Roberts and Hollingsworth exchanged penalties before Boatman slotted over a fifth Esher penalty two minutes from time to secure a draw.
Moseley director of rugby Richard Protherough said: “If we look at ourselves we’ll be disappointed in coming away with a draw after showing so much dominance especially in the conditions although they were also a bit of a leveller at times.
“There were some funny calls that went in there. After being that dominant up front the ref seems to want to even things up and he finds other reasons to ping us and not them.
“They seemed to have a huge amount of warnings while we had one warning and then he was straight in the bin.”