Basingstoke 24 pts v Oxford Harlequins 25 pts Home, Oct 22nd at Down Grange

Report by courtesy of Basingstoke Gazette.

ANGRY Jim Dixon blasted his Basingstoke players after their last-minute defeat to Oxford Harlequins and warned the team’s underachievers to start fronting up or face the consequences. The Kiwi director of rugby hit out on Saturday after watching his ’Stoke side slump to their fourth defeat of the South-West One season. And the 29-year-old pulled no punches in his blunt appraisal when he said: "I am very disappointed and angry with the boys, for the first-half effort really. "There was a total lack of commitment and effort in our defensive play. We should not be 19-0 down to Oxford Harlequins. We are better than that. "We practice week in, week out on our structure and how to defend as a unit, but today there was no effort at all in our defensive play. It looked like we were playing together for the first time. "We need 15 players to turn up on a Saturday wanting to play and give their all for the team, not just a few. That’s what made us a good side last season – we worked hard for each other. "It’s not there at the moment – the boys are turning up expecting to play well – so there will be harsh words at training and reputations will count for nothing. Things need to be and will be said to the boys and those I am very disappointed with. And there will be changes made to the team – some will not be playing next week at St Ives." Saturday’s performance at Down Grange came hot on the heels of their 39-0 defeat to league leaders Mounts Bay last week in Cornwall. In their first-half showing in Penzance, ’Stoke produced their best 40 minutes of rugby this season against the side Dixon feels will win promotion. But back on home turf this weekend, lack lustre ’Stoke failed to perform with any cohesion or passion in the first-half to trail 19-0 at the interval.
Oxford wing Andy Noyce scored out wide right to cap three phases of play on 12 minutes, a driving maul and unconverted score from prop Simon Chadbone came on 19 minutes, while Noyce went on to grab his second try after Oxford turned over. Dixon revealed he held back from going into a half-time tirade, even though he was fuming. He said: "I told the boys we were still capable of getting back into it." And led by the hard-working pack, who Dixon praised for their line-out claims and ball won, ’Stoke recovered after the break to register three converted tries and an Ollie Rogers penalty to go 24-19 up. Caan Childs, again impressive at number eight, led the way following a quickly-taken tap-penalty to cross the line under the posts and give Rogers an easy conversion on 45 minutes. Shane Murphy did the same for his colleague after more solid forward work and pressure close to the Oxford line yielded the Irishman’s pick up and drive over on 54 minutes. Rutherford got in on the act too three minutes later, as his forwards gave him the opportunity to cross after some top rucking. But having gone 21-19 ahead, and then 24-19 with Rogers’ penalty, ’Stoke stopped playing the territorial, forward-orientated rugby that had served them so well. Instead, clearance kicks ran dead or failed to find touch, while the backs division, once more woefully out of sorts, tried to run the ball out of defence and made errors. Oxford used these factors to their advantage to get back into the game. And, having drawn the visitors closer with a 65th-minute penalty hooker Andrew Rowlands’ subsequent sin-binning left the ’Stoke pack a man down full-back Pete Davies proved the match-winner on 80 minutes. Camped patiently inside the ’Stoke 22 against an increasingly impatient defence, the penalty Oxford knew was coming duly came, harshly awarded against Chris Williams, who had a starring role as replacement for the hospitalised Russell Northcote. Davies comfortably slotted over from 15 metres with the last kick of the game.
Dixon said: "My worry was, if we had won, what it would have done to their attitudes. The boys would have felt we played well to come back from 19-0, but that’s not the case. We didn’t deserve to win the game and we got what we deserved."

’Stoke: Grant Murdoch; Dave Lambert, Andrew Patrick, Myles Rutherford, Karl Buttle; Ollie Rogers, Darren Lillywhite (rep Jamie Fish 65 mins); Neil Young, Andrew Rowlands, Shane Murphy; Ross Stirling, Russell Northcote (rep Chris Williams 36 mins); Tom Northcote (rep Simon Lovegrove 68 mins), Simon Appleby, Caan Childs.