Peterborough RUFC are beaten at the death despite a hat-trick of tries for replacement winger

Tom Downer scored a hat-trick of tries for Borough at Oadby.

Borough had drawn their previous two outings, but looked set to get back to winning ways when overturning a 12-0 defict to lead 21-12 in the second half.

Instead they conceded a try and a penalty as the hosts fought back to a point adrift with three minutes go and then the referee found the home side another penalty from a messy rusk near to the Borough try line and it was duly kicked to give Oadby a 23-21 win which was hard luck on replacement wing Tom Downer who claimed a hat-trick of tries after joining the action after 20 minutes following an injury to Ryan Morris.

The city side had to settle for a losing bonus point and dropped to fourth place ahead of a home game with Old Northamptonians next Saturday (January 22, 2.15pm).

Borough's George Offer was sinbinned against Oadby and it proved costly.

Borough started brightly, but couldn’t break the home side’s defence. With the lineout misfiring key attacking opportunities were wasted time and time again.

Oadby on the other hand were able to turn defence into attack and began pressuring Boro’s defence. The pressure told as Boro captain George Offer was sinbinned for taking a player out off the ball.

Oadby took advantage of the extra man and scored two tries, one converted for a 12-0 lead. As has been the status quo this season Boro rallied and scored a penalty through Byron Van Uden for a 12-3 half-time scoreline.

The second half was very scrappy and stop-start with the young referee struggling to control the ruck area. But Downer’s hat-trick of near identical tries appeared to put his side in control.

Oadby would not roll over however and closed the gap to 20-21 with three minutes remaining. With the ruck area of the game an absolute mess the referee managed to find a penalty against Borough which was converted to give the home side victory.