Stoke lose opening league game in South West 1

Basingstoke 23 pts v Chinnor 26 pts, at Pack Lane Sat 10th September 2005

BASINGSTOKE’S first match in rugby’s South-West one division ended in a disappointing defeat. Having totally dominated the first half-hour, playing excellent rugby, ’Stoke were looking comfortable as they held a 15-0 lead. But a combination of not putting their opponents back in their own 22, allied with poor discipline, allowed the visitors to erode the early lead and finally take the game. Annoyed player-coach Jim Dixon said: "That was an improvement over last week’s loss to Ealing, and we put into practice what we had worked on in training during the week, but what let us down was the penalty count against us. "That allowed them to get back into the game, which is one we should have won." ’Stoke took an early lead on three minutes with a Simon Humberstone penalty, and they continued to put pressure on the visitors in all aspects of play. The reward came on 20 minutes when new prop Kym Townsend scored following a catch and drive from a lineout to make it 8-0. Now playing free-flowing rugby and putting together phases of play, ’Stoke put Chinnor under great pressure. As a result, flanker Mike Cook was yellow-carded for persistently killing the ball. Two minutes later a break in the visitors’ 22 by centre Matt Lucas saw him well supported by Gareth Jones, who scored. Humberstone converted to give ’Stoke a 15-0 lead. ’Stoke should have played more of a percentage game from this point and put the visitors on the back foot – but they continued to play an expansive game. On 33 minutes, Chinnor had their first effort into ’Stoke’s 22, where prop Bob Harris made a speculative kick to ’Stoke’s line. Two defenders seemed to have the ball covered, only for the bounce to totally wrong- foot them and the chasing Chinnor player gathered to score for a converted try to reduce the deficit to 15-7. A minute before half-time, ’Stoke dropped the ball on halfway, allowing the Chinnor winger to kick ahead. Referee Kevin Instance adjudged that, in the chase, the home player infringed and awarded a penalty that was duly converted to make a half-time score of 15-10.

The second half saw Chinnor slowly gain domination but ’Stoke did not help them- selves by giving away too many penalties and having Andy Wilson sin-binned. On 47 minutes, ’Stoke gave away a penalty inside their own 22 and Chinnor took the three points on offer. ’Stoke then had to defend their own 22 resolutely and were fortunate that Chinnor missed two kickable penalties. On 58 minutes, near their own line, Wilson conceded the penalty that resulted in his yellow card, and the visitors converted it to lead for the first time. Then, on 65 minutes when ‘Stoke were down to 13 men because of injury, Chinnor took further advantage with a converted try to lead 23-15. Restored to full strength shortly afterwards, ’Stoke started to play the better rugby and a Humberstone penalty on 70 minutes made it 18-23. A minute later, ’Stoke were again rewarded when Nathan Mantle broke free on the 22 to release wing Dave Lambert to score out wide to tie the match at 23-23. A tense finale ensued and twice when ’Stoke broke through, the pass went to a Chinnor player instead of their own. ’Stoke also thought they had a penalty in front of the posts when a Chinnor player clearly picked up from the base of the maul and re-joined, only for Instance to give a scrum. The sting in the tail came on 76 minutes when, with a lineout in ’Stoke’s favour on their own 22, a home player was penalised for pushing one of the opponents out of the way and a reversed penalty saw Chinnor take the match-winning points.

’Stoke: Simon Humberstone; Dave Lambert, Simon Buckland, Matt Lucas, Gareth Jones; Carl Marshall, Darren Lillywhite (rep Carl Saunders); Shane Murphy, Simon Lovegrove (rep Phil Perkins), Kym Townsend, Andy Wilson (rep Russell Northcote), Nate Mantle, Ross Stirling, Simon Appleby, Jim Dixon.

link to RFU site