Basingstoke lose again

Basingstoke 0 pts v Blackheath 24 pts

Fx-backed Basingstoke lost their third game in a row on Saturday, although the scoreline didn't entirely reflect the run of play. Stoke spent the entire second-half camped in the Blackheath 22, but despite all Stokes effort, resilient defence prevented them from scoring even a point.
Stoke have now played the top three teams in successive weeks and despite a points difference of over 100 against them they have proven time and again they can compete with the top teams and deserved at least one win out of the three games.
The game started slowly and was full of mistakes in the opening ten minutes. Basingstoke's Ian Calder had the first chance of points with a penalty that he missed into a strong wind before Blackheath's Jon Griffin opened his account with an easy penalty from in front of the posts. The first try of the game was a controversial one as Blackheath were awarded a five metre scrum after a kick that Stoke touched down for a 22 metre drop out was adjudged to have touched a Stoke player on the way when it clearly didn't. From the resulted scrum no.8 Andy Monighan crashed over. At this point Stoke were struggling to contain Blackheath's driving mauls and the strong wind in their face gave them no chance to clear their lines. Stoke were punished for this as Blackheath added two more converted tries with only 30 minutes played. The first came from a pushover try from a five metre scrum and the second after a break through midfield for a 24-0 lead.
Basingstoke now seemed to wake up and pressed the Blackheath line for the rest of the half. But mistakes at critical moments brought no rewards for Stoke.

Half time Basingstoke 0 pts v Blackheath 24 pts

The second half saw Stoke on the attack again as they used the strong wind in their favour to put immediate pressure on Blackheath. Stoke created several chances but stern defence prevented them from crossing the line. Steve Collins came the closest as he went over the line but was unfortunately pulled back for a forward pass. Despite the loss Stoke can take many positives from the game but must learn to be more clinical with their chances if they are to beat the top teams in this league. Simon Wickes was impressive on his debut, Selwyn St. Bernard looked threatening throughout the game and Phil Della-Savina put in another workman like performance to pick up the man-of-the-match award.

After Ian Calder said "We allowed them to dominate the first 30 minutes and score three tries with some naive defending and not stopping their rolling mauls early enough. While we then dominated the last 10 minutes and all of the second half too many mistakes at the crucial times and trying to force the game meant opportunities to score went begging".'

NEXT GAME Saturday 25th Jan 2003 away to Weston-super-mare,National 3 South. k.o 2:00 pm.
                

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