Old Mid-Whitgiftian 31 Weybridge Vandals 10 Mids took little satisfaction from this Powergen Intermediate Cup first-round win against a side from one league lower.

Although they scored four tries, at least five other golden scoring opportunities went begging.

Their first chance came after five minutes when the visitors were caught offside. But Dan Crouch missed a straight-forward kick. Vandals then took the lead from a penalty.

From the restart Vandals conceded a penalty, which Crouch converted to equalize.

Mids began to exert some pressure and were given another penalty for handling at a ruck for a 6-3 advantage.

After half an hour, one of the Vandals props was yellow carded for persistently preventing Mids getting quick ball.

Three minutes into his 10-minute exclusion period, Mids finally put together a move, which ended with Dan Crouch dummying right and breaking through to touch down. The conversion made the score 13-3.

Before half time, Vandals’ left wing collected a lose ball infield close to a maul, and ran round the Mids’ defence to score close to the posts.

Five minutes into the second half, Mids were gifted a try when a sliced defensive kick allowed Rhys Jackson to run in and score.

For the next 20 minutes, Mids pressed with little success.

At last the home side scored a textbook try when a line-out ball on the Vandals 10-metre line, was moved along the line to create space for Aaron Pennington to sprint in from 22 metres out.

Another try came when a long pass from Crouch bounced before reaching number eight Mark Macaskill standing out wide. But Macaskill gathered and handed off the winger on his way to the try line.

Mids must be concerned about squandered chances, with tougher challenges to come.