Basingstoke 12 pts v Civil Service 30 pts at Pack Lane Feb 9th 2008
Report by courtesy of Basingstoke Gazette.

Stoke paid the price after a lack lustre display against a more vibrant Civil Service side who had not won on their travels this season and were one place below Stoke. The damage was once again done in the first half where Stoke never created a try scoring chance until a lucky interception in the final minute, but they were already 23-0 down at that time. The visitors started well and soon had the home side under pressure, playing with more urgency, particularly at the break down. They were rewarded on 11 minutes with a try from a 5 metre scrum, although it did seem to of gone round passed the 90 degree point and should have been re-set, instead their number 8 crashed over and a 5-0 lead. Stoke struggled to put any phases of play together and were giving away possession with turn over ball or more importantly penalties. As a result the visitors extended their lead with 2 easy penalties on 22 and 29 minutes to 11-0. Civil Service were now well on top and running at Stoke at every opportunity and their dominance led to two tries in three minutes on 33 and 36 with one conversion for a 23-0 advantage. Stoke did not help matters with some poor tackling to allow their opponents to make ground and off load well in the tackle situation. On 41 minutes, the visitors once again tried to pass the ball out only this time Buckland went for the interception just out side his 22 and off he went with 2 opponents chasing. The nearer the line he got the nearer the chasing players got and he was finally hauled down 3 metres short only for the ever reliant Appleby to be on hand and gather the ball and dive over the line and a half time score of 23 - 5 to the visitors.

The second half started better for Stoke and it was now their turn to be the dominant side playing with more commitment. On 47 minutes Goodall made a good break and chipped over the full back into the 22. Whilst the bounce eluded him he managed to fall on the ball and flip the pass to a supporting player only for the pass to be knocked on 15 metres from the line and the scoring chance lost. On 51 Stoke did score another try after recycling the ball Lillywhite made a darting break down the blind side from just inside his own half. Buttle was on hand to continue and made his way into the 22. The defence were closing down his options until Appleby again appeared on his inside and take the pass to score under the posts and O'Flanagan added the extras to reduce arrears to 12-23. If Stoke were to get anything from the game now was the time to take control and to get the next score. Disaster struck on 62 minutes when a long clearance from O'Flanagan went from his own 22 into the visitors 22. The full back chose to run the ball and eluded the chasing Stoke players and he set off up field looking for support. With good hands and keeping the ball alive the visitors, with the help of some poor tackling, went all the way to the line and score by the posts and take a 30-12 lead. This effectively finished the game as Stoke now needed to score 3 times. On 73 minutes with Stoke attacking Cooper was penalised for dangerous use of the boot and was shown a straight red card and Stoke were now down to 14 men. Whilst Stoke remained on top in the last 5 minutes it was too little to late even when the visitors were reduced to 14 men for killing the ball in the red zone late on. The platform took time to settle in both the scrum and line out with Dixon having to move to hooker and new prop Matthews at tight head. The backs were again re-shuffled with Northcote starting at centre and new centre Allfrey replacing him at half time.

Appleby was deservedly man of the match. Whilst this was not the result Stoke wanted it was what they deserved on to-days show and matters were not helped by Stortford losing and thinking what a win would have done for the league position.

Dixon added "That was extremely disappointing. We did not turn up for the first 40 minutes and were not competitive at the break down which allowed them too much ball and to offload too easily in the tackle. This was more annoying as we had worked on this in training as we knew the liked to run the ball."

TEAM: Goodall, Richards, Buckland, Northcote(Rob) (Allfrey), Buttle, O'Flanagan, Lillywhite, Young, Dixon, Matthews, Scott, Cooper, Appleby, Williams, Richardson (Goodman), not used Lewis.