University of East London 8 University College London 13

The University of East London men’s rugby team battled hard on Wednesday against University College London’s (UCL) fourth team, but ultimately fell to a 13-8 defeat at Barking Rugby Club.

The visitors began brightly and UEL struggled to hold back a physically dominant UCL squad, who pushed across the line for the first try.

UEL then took possession and began to put pressure on the visitors. UCL was penalised for not rolling away near the try line, but the hosts failed to capitalise.

For the second time in the game, UEL failed to execute a solid lineout, but still managed to recover the loose ball.

They off-loaded to the right and Milo Johnson drove across the line. The conversion attempt was missed, leaving the scores level at five apiece.

But UCL soon retook the lead, converting a penalty to go up 8-5 and they nearly scored another try after a lineout, but UEL halted the maul just before the line.

UEL also came close, but were unable to ground the ball across the try line, however, they were awarded, and converted it to draw the match level at 8-8.

UCL continued to press for the remainder of the first half and that pressure finally told as the went over for another try, though the conversion was missed as they moved into a 13-8 lead.

UEL missed a great chance to reduce the deficit at the break when missing a penalty, and went into behind by five points.

East London picked up their attack after the break, but were tackled into touch near the try line several times, and had a few tries called back because of knock-ons.

The hosts forced their way close to the line again and again in the final few minutes, but they were unable to reduce the deficit.

And UEL’s Christian Bennison was left frustrated, feeling his side should have come away with the win.

“I’m kind of annoyed we lost,” said Bennison. “It’s a game that we should easily have come away with a win.

“We’ve got some basic things we need to work on. We have to utilise the errors that we’re forcing.”

UEL will play Portsmouth University Men’s third team on Wednesday at Barking RFC at 2 p.m. in the BUCS Student Cup.

“We’re really confident, as long as we’ve got a really strong starting team,” added Bennison. “We were missing a couple of players this week. When we’re back up to full strength, I think we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”