TONBRIDGE JUDDIANS warmed up for their rearranged top-of-the-table clash with a testing encounter at Guildford in National League Three London and South East.
TJs had eased to a 37-5 victory in the home tie so travelled in confident mood. But the pitch at Broadwater had suffered from the recent frost and the visitors found it hard to get a foothold in the early exchanges.
Guildford in fact dominated pssession and field position for much of the first half and went ahead through two penalties.
A Liam Prescott penalty and George Lawson’s try were all TJs could muster in a lacklustre first half but they still went in 8-6 in front.
TJs came out firing against a Guildford squad who lacked penetration against a pacey defence. Murray Galbraith-Lowe got the ball rolling after some interplay between the forwards and backs, and Adam Darracott benefited from the same mix to crash over.
Cole Campbell finished off another move under the posts, which secured the bonus point. TJs dropped off a little and Guildford managed to get into TJ territory for the first of their three tries.
But the visitors were soon back on track as Will Ward went over after some excellent work down the right by Harry Isaac.
The final TJ try came from Stephen Neli as he bounced his way over, though the hosts finished strongly with two tries of their own.
TJs now look ahead to Saturday’s rearranged top-of-the-table-tie with Wimbledon at The Slade, which will coincide with the annual TJ Beer Festival on Friday evening and all day Saturday.
The Second XV were also at Guildford in Zoo 3 and a warm-up injury to one of their squad seemed to disrupt them in a feisty, error strewn game which they managed to win 24-20.
Max Hobbs grabbed a brace of tries and Tom Simmonds ghosted through for the winning try to secure the win that keeps them top of their division.
