Stoke lose at Lydney

Lydney 23 pts v Basingstoke 8 pts

Basingstoke made an early exit from the Powergen cup on Saturday going down 23-8 at Lydney, a team they will later face in the league.
Stoke started slowly and took a while to get into the game. This gave Lydney a chance to create an early lead which they took full advantage of. A penalty and unconverted try gave them an 8-0 lead with only 5 minutes played. Stoke responded with a penalty from Ian Calder to narrow the gap to 5 points. Basingstoke then began to take a grip on the game applying several minutes of pressure, which should have resulted in more points had Stoke been able to win their own scrummage ball. This inability to win ball in promising positions allowed Lydney to clear their lines time and again.
Lydney then began to attack the Stoke line towards the end of the half, but resilient Stoke defence made sure their opportunities were reduced to an attempt at goal that drifted well wide, meaning that the half time score remained 8-3.

The second half was a completely different story though with Lydney's bigger pack exerting pressure on Stoke. This led to Lydney camping in the Basingstoke 22 for much of the third quarter. Whilst promising runs from scrum-half Tom Dean and centres Neal Taylor and Barrie Kirwan relieved pressure momentarily, Basingstoke were unable to attack for any sustained periods. Despite some courageous defence Lydney eventually broke the Stoke line with an unconverted push-over try from 10 metres out. In the next 10 minutes Lydney were to put the result beyond doubt with a converted try and penalty for a 23-3 lead and only 10 minutes left on the clock. But it was a credit to Stokes character that they did not fold at this point as in the past they so often did and concede points. Instead they were to score a try of their own and come close to another.

After 73 minutes Gareth Jones crossed the line but was pulled back for a forward pass. Then Neal Taylor legitimately opened his scoring account for the season diving over from short range for a final score of 22-8.

Despite this loss being the third in a row many positive still came from it. Excellent performances from the whole pack and man-of-the-match centre Barrie Kirwan espeically stood out, whilst the strong team spirit meant Stoke fought till the end and didn't collapse. Ian Calder later said: Whilst we are competitive on 2nd and 3rd phase ball, we have to secure our own first phase ball before hard fought loses turn into victories. All of the players gave their all, but we now have to start turning our season around by winning the next 4 league games against sides below us in the league. Basingstoke team: C Norton, R Holmes, B Kirwan(J Rees), N Taylor, M Dangerfield(G Jones), I Calder, T Dean, S St.Bernard(R Stirling), S Appleby(A Wilson), R Baker, N Hooker, K Chapman, R Mckinnie, M Evans(S Buttle), S Collins.

NEXT GAME Saturday 28th September Away to Old Colfeians League Nat 3 South ko 3:00pm

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