Tom Price kicked the vital late penalty to give Walden the win over Old Streetonians

TOM Price kicked a late penalty to end Saffron Walden’s six-game losing run.

The Rams showed great spirit to come from behind to seal a battling victory over Old Streetonians on Saturday - a result which all-but ensured their survival in London 2NE for next season.

Walden started brightly and pressurised the home team into making a mistake at the ruck after only three minutes. Fullback Price stepped up to kick the first points.

Streetonians, who are facing a relegation battle themselves, started playing some good tight rugby and with some quick ball off the rucks they made good ground. They struck the first try to take the lead and extended their tally with their second try 10 minutes later when again they forced Walden on to the back foot and exploited a gap wide out to go over in the corner.

Walden’s forwards then won good ball and spun it wide for the backs to combine, with centre Adam Miles taking the final pass and going over for a converted try to ensure the tie was level at the break.

Streetonians looked determined to take the game to Walden after the interval. They forced a line out near to the visitor’s line and, after winning clean ball, set up a driving maul to go over the whitewash.

For the next 10 minutes Walden struggled to clear their lines. On the hour mark, Streetonians won another line out and, after winnig clean ball, fed the winger, who skipped through a gap to go over for a try to extend the lead to 22-10.

However, far from caving in, Walden dug deep and started to string together some good passages of play. The forwards took the ball through a series of pick and drives and the occasional pass out and they forced Streetonians to give a penalty away, Walden taking the three points on offer.

Straight from the kick-off, Walden regained possession and broke into the home team half. Winger Harry Beadows made good ground only to be tackled illegally and, after winning the scrum, Tom Price received a great pass from James Read to break the line and canter round under the posts to narrow the gap to 22-20 with 10 minutes to go.

With five minutes on the clock, Walden forced the hosts into conceding a penalty, Up stepped Price to cooly drill the ball over the posts to give the Rams a one-point lead.

Walden held on for the remaning minutes for a confidence-boosting win.

Next up, they host Holt on Saturday, 3pm start.