Back to winning ways.

Basingstoke 57 pts v Clevedon 5 pts at Pack Lane 4th March 2006

After a week out from South West one action, 'Stoke were hoping to get their promotion efforts back on track after a disappointing lose to Chippenham two weeks ago. There were two huge setbacks for 'Stokes with Carl Marshall pulling out during the week with an exploded ear drum, and then Ross Stirling dropped out in the warm up after pulling his hamstring. On the pitch, however, things were a lot better for 'Stoke with two converted tries coming in the first 6 minutes. The first of which through scrum half Jamie fish, who ran over from a five metre penalty, and the second came in the form of yet another try for Rogers.

After this explosive start, 'Stoke let their foot of the gas and started to throw the ball around in a high risk fashion, more often than not resulting in a knock-on or turn over. The next scoring opportunity was a penalty from 40 meters out. Humberstone converted the chance and took the score to 17-0 after 25 minutes. Five minutes later Tom Northcote put his name on the scorer's sheet on his return to first team rugby after a long spell out through injury. Humberstone added the tricky conversion to take the score to 24-0. On the stroke of half time 'Stoke wrapped up the two points with a try through prop Kym Townsend. Humberstone kicked the conversion to leave the half time score at 31-0.

Despite this healthy lead, there was still pleads for more effort in the second half. These demands were met ten minutes into the second half after a chip ahead from non other than prop Shane Murphy's was touched down by Dave Lambert. Humberstone continued his so-far perfect kicking day with a conversion fifteen metres in from the touchline. For the next fifteen minutes 'Stoke again let their foot of the gas after a few near Clevedon tries 'Stoke got their act together and were soon ticking the score board over again through another Tom Northcote try. Humberstone added the two points to take the score to 45-0. Just two minutes later 'Stoke were scoring again through a Lambert try to bring up the fifty points. With ten minutes to go and the game won 'Stoke started to play their "champagne" rugby, which inevitably gave Clevedon chances, and on 71 minutes were converted into points with an unconverted try.

After conceding a try 'Stoke began to play sensible rugby again and were soon rewarded when Humberstone put a chip ahead to follow only for Lambert to come from nowhere to complete his hat-trick, and add to his ever increasing tally of tries. Humberstone soon gained some justice from having his try stolen with a successful conversion from out wide. When Stoke won quick ball and used it sensibly they looked a very good team. The line outs went well with Russell Northcote prominent and the scrums at times were very powerful. The three juniors of Humberstone, Fish and Northcote (Tom) all had good games whilst man of the match went to Lambert. Rowlands had 20 minutes and will make selection interesting in the following weeks.
Dixon added "We played well at times but did over complicate things at times. We controlled most of the game but did give away a lot of turn over ball which we will have to work on this week. Next week will be a game where we must play keep ball and limit our mistakes."

Team: O Rogers, D Lambert, S Buckland, M Lucas, C Saunders, S Humberstome, J Fish(A Byett), S Murphy, S Lovegrove (A Rowlands), K Townsend, A Hopkins, R Northcote(C Hampson), T Northcote, S Appleby, J Dixon.

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