MIDLANDS Hurricanes were left to rue AJ Boardman’s first-minute red card after the Portway club suffered a narrow 38-34 defeat at London Skolars.
Boardman was sent off just two tackles into the game as Hurricanes almost pulled off a sensational result in the capital at New River Stadium.
Tom Wilkinson and Ben Stead both crossed for two tries with Bailey Dawson and Brad Clavering also touching down to fall just four points short of Skolars despite playing almost the entire game with 12-men.
Head Coach Rich Squires said: “Unfortunately, we could not recover from having a man sent off for the second tackle of the game. That decision left us on the back foot and always trying to find our feet.
“Playing back-to-back weeks without a full team started to take its toll and there were some tired and busted bodies out there who could easily have won the game on the day.”
London made the most of their man advantage to score two quickfire tries to leave Hurricanes a man and two tries down in the opening 10 minutes.
However, the Midlands club rallied when Dawson collected Stead’s lovely chipped kick through to score before Skolars crossed again before the break to leave Hurricanes with a mountain to climb in the second period.
The visitors refused to lie down when Wilkinson finished well in the corner after a superb break from Nathan Newbound.
Skolars hit back to extend their lead to 10 points and keep Hurricanes at arms length before Stead gathered his own grubber kick and touched down under the posts to reduce the deficit to a single score.
The teams traded tries not once but twice as Clavering and Wilkinson struck for Hurricanes to bring the Midlands side within two points of their opponents.
However, the London club eventually pulled clear with a try five minutes from time with Stead’s late score in vain.
Hurricanes conclude their season at home against Cornwall on Sunday, September 4 with kick-off at 3pm at Portway.
