Basingstoke dominant at Cheltenham

Cheltenham 13 pts v Basingstoke 48 pts at Cheltenham, Oct 29th 2005

WITH their biggest win so far this season, Basingstoke are still snapping at the heels of the top three in rugby’s South-West one division.

Saturday’s impressive performance in Gloucestershire followed a six-try mauling of Penryn at Down Grange the week before. The hero on Saturday was player-coach Jim Dixon, who ran in four tries against a side already battling for survival. The game was marred as a spectacle by many niggling incidents that tested the temperament of the visitors. The home side, who are bottom of the table, are already under investigation by Rugby Football Union officials for a league match at Spartans in which one of the home players was seriously injured. ’Stoke were expecting a physical encounter and so it proved. Inside the first 10 minutes, Cheltenham were penalised three times. Kicker Simon Humberstone went for goal into a strong wind and missed the first two penalties. With the third, he settled for gaining field position. The strategy paid off with Dixon going over in the corner for the first of his four tries. Humberstone was unable to improve the score and Cheltenham benefited from a penalty needlessly given away on the halfway line. More indiscipline resulted in the Cheltenham No 8 being sin-binned and Basingstoke took advantage of the extra man when Matt Lucas scored an easily-converted try under the posts. Before half-time, the home side were back to strength and hit back with a try in the corner which cut the Basingstoke lead to 12-8.

Satisfied with their first-half performance, the visitors suffered an immediate setback after the break, when Canadian No 8 Nate Mantle was yellow-carded for a professional foul. Despite going down to 14 men, ’Stoke took advantage of a favourable wind and tiring opponents to advance the score to 22-8 with a Humberstone penalty from the halfway line and Lucas’ second try, a great team effort which the full-back converted. ’Stoke were back with 15 players only for a short time before Ross Stirling was sin-binned. The visitors still managed to dominate and they added tries through Simon Buckland and Dixon. Humberstone improved both scores to put Basingstoke 36-8 ahead. Cheltenham gave themselves a glimmer of hope with a try 10 minutes from the end. This only spurred on the visitors and Dixon completed his hat-trick before taking his personal match tally to 20 points with a fourth try. Humberstone converted his side’s seventh try of the day. ’Stoke had late chances to improve their score further but were thwarted near the line. The forwards were, at times, lazy in the first half, but more than made up for it after the turnaround. The backs looked dangerous when given early ball, with Buckland causing the home side problems on many occasions. The visitors could have used the wind to their advantage in the second half but often preferred to keep the ball in hand. However, when moves broke down, they had to work extra hard to regain possession. Cheltenham stuck to a tight game throughout and, generally, the visitors were able to deal with this comfortably, with a good defensive display by the whole team.

Four-try hero Dixon said afterwards: "That was a satisfying win. "We put into practice what we have been doing in training. With two home league games coming up, we have an opportunity to show our home fans the same sort of style that we played today, and to keep the pressure on the sides above us." Next week’s visitors to Down Grange are Oxford Harlequins.

Basingstoke: S Humberstone; D Lillywhite, S Buckland, M Lucas, G Jones, C Marshall, J Fish, S Murphy (rep P Perkins), S Lovegrove, P Perkins (rep M Rushworth), N Mantel, R Northcote (rep S Crew), R Stirling, S Appleby, J Dixon.

link to RFU site