The wait for a second win of the campaign goes on for Tonbridge Juddians - despite a dream start to their derby against Blackheath.

A season-record crowd flocked to the Slade and they saw Judds start with a flourish. Putting early pressure on the Blackheath lineout, Mike O’Sullivan picked up a loose ball at the tail and managed to sneak past a couple of tackles. He expertly offloaded to Matt Walsh, who beat the final defender before sliding into the corner.

Although Tom White failed to add the extras, TJs continued to gain the upper hand with Blackheath off the pace and White slotted a penalty to extend the lead.

The away side were not going to go away quickly, though, and got on the scoreboard with a penalty of their own. But TJs finished the half the stronger thanks to a wonder try from full-back Murray Gailbraith-Lowe.

Gailbraith-Lowe picked the ball up on the 10m line with little space in front of him. But he jinked past one player, then went for an audacious chip and chase. He split the cover defence with a perfect kick, then evaded the remaining tackles to give TJs a 15-3 half-time lead.

The second half started with the hosts under pressure, and a high tackle resulted in a Kieran Sassone yellow card.

A second yellow quickly followed with Tom Nicol sent to the bin for a penalty in the red zone and with Judds down to 13 men, Blackheath scored back-to-back tries to level the scores.

TJs regained their composure and worked their way up field to set up another White penalty and retake the lead, but in an end-to-end spell Blackheath replied with a try on the left-hand touchline, before White converted another three points going into the final minutes.

However a partially charged-down kick gave Blackheath the opportunity to grab the win from the 10m line and they held their nerve to take victory by two points.

Tonbridge visit Caldy this weekend.

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