There were several positives despite Letchworth s second team losing 29-25 at their Woodford counterparts. They ultimately paid the price for a poor first-half performance. There were two debutants on display – Dave Rea from South Africa showed pace on th

There were several positives despite Letchworth's second team losing 29-25 at their Woodford counterparts.

They ultimately paid the price for a poor first-half performance.

There were two debutants on display - Dave Rea from South Africa showed pace on the wing, while giant 6ft 10in lock James Bairstow, ex-National League Bradford and Bingley, came on in the second half and showed some useful touches.

At 19-0 down, Letchworth woke up for the last 10 minutes of the half and sustained pressure led to Polish workhorse George Ghita crashing over for a deserved score.

Letchworth leaked a further score in the first few minutes of the new half before Mark Ellis put over a penalty and Woodford scored again for an almost unassailable lead at 29-8.

The last half an hour was all Letchworth to turn the game into a real thriller. The forwards started to put in some driving runs while the backs found some real penetration.

Their fightback began with skipper James Nye scoring after some immense forward pressure. Ellis banged the conversion right between the sticks.

Then scrum-half Alex Firth scored a brace of tries. The first was after a fine backs move but the second was a real opportunistic scrum-half try pinching the ball from a Woodford maul. Ellis hit the bar with his first conversion and narrowly missed with the second.

This ensured the last five minutes were a humdinger as Letchworth threw everything at their hosts.

Both wingers went close as desperate Woodford defence held them out and Letchworth were even awarded a scrum under the Woodford posts in the dying seconds which did not yield a score.