Magnificent Seven!

Basingstoke 25 pts v Havant 8 pts

In a sometimes ill-tempered game which saw one sending-off and 3 yellow cards, Basingstoke soundly beat the league leaders by 3 tries, 2 conversions, 1 penalty and a drop goal to a penalty and a try. Stoke were magnificent and the nature of the win was even more surprising as Basingstoke lost Phil Della-Savina, red carded after 23 minutes. By that time the home side had already started to exert pressure on a Havant three-quarter line containing old boys Sid Claffey and Denville Elleston. An early Claffey penalty missed was then followed with some excellent play by the home forwards and backs. Quick ball was shifted by the forwards, "super tanker", Neal Taylor crashed into Havant's line and Ian Calder was on hand to pick up and dive over near the posts. He converted himself to lead 7-0. Havants game plan of driving up the middle using their large forwards was not working but they did reduce the arrears with a Claffey penalty, he missed again 6 minutes later but this preceeded Phil Della-Savina being yellow carded which was turned to red, for some back-chat. The one man advantage Havant looked like it would tell as Havant tried desperately to get over the line, but the Stoke forwards raised their game and snuffed out the visitors lumbering pack, in fact during this period Stoke took control of the game and scored a tremendous try through Gareth Jones, Calder missing the conversion. The game bubbled over at this point and the referee sin-binned three, one from Basingstoke, Ash Riley and two from Havant, Jon Barfoot and Dave Archer. This just seemed to spur on Stoke and again Havant found the Stoke threes to hot to handle and from another sizzling move, the league's leading try scorer Gareth Jones dived over in the corner, Ian Calder kicking a magnificent touch-line conversion to make the score 19-3 at half-time.

Playing downwind in the second half, Basingstoke gave a display of containment rugby, the forwards denied Havant the space to do anything creative and it was Stoke who were denied time and again a score through some resolute defence. Stoke's magnificent seven in the forwards completely outplayed Havant's much vaunted pack. The home side increased their lead with a simple Calder penalty after 20 minutes of the half. Havant from the kick-off came back to their credit and finally worked the blind side and substitute winger Liam Davenport on for Denville Elleston went over in the corner. Basingstoke quickly shut the door on any comeback and in a bizarre period of play Gareth Jones , dropped a goal but missed two others. But it made no difference, Havant were soundly beaten by a home side fully committed.

Full time Basingstoke 25 pts v Havant 8 pts

NEXT GAME Sunday 17th Feb, home to Portsmouth Hampshire Cup ko 2:30 pm

link to RFU site