Basingstoke narrowly lose at Haywards Heath

A superb second half display was not enough for Stoke to record a much needed win against Haywards Heath. Full credit must be given to all players for a combative performance with 80 % of the second half spent in the home teams' half but Stoke could not put the pressure into much needed points. The match started well for Stoke with early pressure resulting in a penalty on 3 minutes which Calder converted for a 3 nil lead. The next few passages of play saw Stoke give away needless penalties when in promising positions which allowed Heath to move the play into Stoke territory. This was rewarded with a penalty on the 22 for the home team to equalise on 10 minutes. Stoke nearly regained the lead when Calder narrowly missed a penalty on 15. Sometimes when your luck is down the bounce of the ball goes against you and this happened on 20 minutes when a chip ahead by Heath bounced for them and against Stoke for an unconverted try. For the next 12 minutes the game was evenly matched with Stoke winning quality line out ball and showing a much improved defensive performance in this area. The scrums were evenly matched but Stoke often lost the ball in the loose by players becoming isolated. On 32 minutes after giving away another penalty which allowed Heath to kick into Stokes 22, they won a line out ball and a missed tackle enabled the home team to score under the posts for a converted try and a 15-3 lead. From the resultant kick off Stoke put immediate pressure on the home team and were rewarded with a penalty converted by Calder to go in at half time 15-6 down.

The second half started with Stoke putting together several good phases of play and looked to of scored on 8 minutes but the ref penalised Stoke for crossing 10 meters out. Thereafter Stoke began to dominate all passages of play including the loose and were rewarded when Chimbina finished off several phases of play by the whole Stoke team to allow Calder to convert and reduce the arrears to 2 points. Debutante Roeske had a quiet 1st half but was now playing his part in a whole team effort that saw the home team out of their half on only 2 occasions. The front row was solid, Chapman and Stirling winning good line out ball and the back row running and securing the ball. The backs were getting early ball and all were able to make breaks beyond the gain line. Resolute defence and the odd error by Stoke was the only reason points were not scored. With 5 minutes still left on the ref.'s watch Stoke were rewarded for their continual pressure with a penalty and again with only 1 minute remaining but the disappointment of all the Stoke players was evident when both kicks were narrowly missed. It is obvious that the efforts in training is working but 2 much needed points eluded Stoke.

Calder added after "Whilst we had chances to win the game we again gave ourselves a lot to do as a result of giving away too many penalties in the 1st half. I would thank all the players for thier efforts with some of the younger ones now putting in performances that thier ability deserves."

Final Score Haywards Heath 15 pts v Basingstoke 13 pts

NEXT GAME Saturday 24th February home to Blackheath 2:30 pm.

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