London Met make light of sending-off

UEL’s men’s rugby squad saw their unbeaten league record brought to an end by a London Metropolitan side who played the majority of their match a man short.

Despite their exit from the BUCS Cup at the hands of Goldsmiths, UEL went into their latest league fixture with five wins and a draw to their name.

They never really kicked into gear, though, and London Met, who were yet to win this season, raced into a 10-0 lead after Josh Graham’s early penalty and Ben Harvey’s converted try midway through the half.

Harvey sailed through the UEL defence to touch down, but his day was brought to a premature end shortly after when he was shown a red card for persistent dissent towards the referee.

The man advantage aided the East Londoners whose best spell of the match came towards the end of the first half when Rob Gardner powered his way over the line after a sustained period of pressure.

But UEL failed to push on in the second half and Graham’s penalty put London Met eight points up before Brandon Kent intercepted Bradley Cock’s pass and ran from inside his own half to score Met’s second try directly under the posts.

Graham’s conversion gave Met a 15-point lead, but UEL did not give up, however poor counter-rucking and ill discipline cost them dearly.

Sam Brown sealed the win for the 14-man Hercules late on when he went over in the corner but UEL remain top of South Eastern 4B.

King College fourth will join them at the top if they win their games in hand.

Scoring – UEL, try: Gardner. London Met, tries: Harvey, Kent, Brown. Cons: Graham 2. Pens: Graham 2.