With three weeks off for the festive period one would have thought Fullerians would be chomping at the bit to get 2012 off well. Unfortunately Tabard ended any hope of a postiive start to the New Year with a 16-0 away win.

Fullers were quickly on the back foot but the defence was up to the task until the hosts were penalised for going over in the loose.

Tabard opened the scoring with the consequent penalty and then extended their lead further as Fullers came off their feet at the ruck.

The Tabard fly half had his kicking boots on to open up a six point lead for the visitors.

Tabard continued with their attacks only for Fullerians to keep them at bay with their dogged defence.

However, the home side were finally caught out of position and Tabard surged through a defensive lapse to run in a try to stretch the lead to 11 points at the break.

Fullers started better in the second half and at last had some ball to play with.

Unfortunately for the hosts the final pass was continuously missing or knock ons put a stop to any threatennig attacks developing.

Tabard's numbers were temporarily reduced and Fullers upped the pace that had been lacking for the opening hour.

But once again poor passing let Fullerians down and Tabard were there to pick up any scraps.

The visitors finished the game with a simple score from the scrum.

The centres crashed up the middle and with poor tackling from the home side were able to score.

Although both teams then had their fair share of the game, no further scores came and Tabard were the victors.

Skipper Jamie Molloy said: “We were not at the races today. We have to be honest and were well below par and we need to find that aggression on match days to take the game to the opposition.”