Basingstoke 10 pts v Weston-Super-Mare 16 pts Away, Dec 2nd 2006 at Pack Lane

Report by courtesy of Basingstoke Gazette.

BASINGSTOKE were unable to bounce back after their defeat at St Ives as they lost to visiting Weston-super-Mare on Saturday. 'Stoke started the game with the wind advantage, and played some promising rugby. After seven minutes, they found themselves 10 metres from the Weston line, but a knock-on was the first of many costly errors. Soon after, the home side had another scoring chance when fly-half Myles Rutherford made a break to within five metres of the Weston line, but Dave Lambert was bundled into touch. On 16 minutes, Weston had a scrum on their own 10-metre line, but from a pass Rutherford pounced on a dropped ball and ran within five metres of the Weston line, only to be tackled into touch. Basingstoke's relentless pressure finally paid off on the 25-minute mark as they earned a penalty and kicked to touch. From the lineout, the ball was spun infield and Jamie Fish picked from the base of a ruck before going over to score. Simon Humberstone added the conversion. In the final 10 minutes of the half, 'Stoke seemed to switch off. They made mistakes, struggled to get any quality possession and lost their lead to an unconverted try and a penalty.

The second half started well for the home side with the Weston restart going dead and 'Stoke choosing the option of a scrum on the halfway line. From this, a practised blind-side move saw Lambert through one-on-one with the full back, only to be turned over, and Weston cleared their lines. Just two minutes later, 'Stoke started a move of 20 phases to the Weston line. The ball finally crossed the visitors line only to be held up by a desperate Weston defence. From the resulting scrum, the ball shot out the back, was knocked on and 'Stoke's chance had gone. On 51 minutes, 'Stoke conceded yet another soft try and even though the conversion was missed, the visitors now led 13-7. Soon after, the home side earned themselves a penalty which Humberstone kicked to reduce the lead to three. Just after the hour, good home defence stopped a further Weston score as they knocked on. Then on 76 minutes the game was put beyond the reach of the home side when they conceded yet another penalty, which was kicked by the Weston fly-half who had ruled the game throughout.

'Stoke director of rugby Jim Dixon said: "We put Weston under a lot of pressure but came away with very little for our efforts. "Too often it was our handling errors that cost us and they punished our mistakes."

'Stoke: Simon Humberstone, Dave Lambert (Darren Lillywhite), Mike Swenson, Andrew Patrick, Ollie Rogers, Myles Rutherford, Jamie Fish, Tom Northcote, Jim Dixon, Chris Williams (Steve Pywell), Russell Northcote, Ross Sterling, Phil Perkins (Simon Lovegrove) Andrew Rowlands, Shane Murphy.