Stoke thumped at London Nigerians.

London Nigerians 48 pts v Basingstoke 31 pts

On a fine day in London F-X backed Stoke pressed the self destruct button in the 1st half and went in 31-5 down and this was a mountain too high to climb. In a match that Stoke could and should of won, their play was riddled with eliminatory errors that every time they got into the game they gave away the ball to easily for their opponents to punish them. It all started on 2 minutes when the opposition passed the ball along the line, their centre was not put to ground and his winger cut a line to score under the posts for a converted try and a 7-0 lead. Stoke fought back and scored a simple try when the forwards recycled the ball quickly for Humberstoe to put Buckland through a gap and feed Saunders to score in the corner to trail 5-7. The rest of the 1st half was a catalogue of errors that saw Nigerians score 4 unanswered tries. On 12 minutes Stoke gave away a free kick inside their own 22 that was taken quickly and Stoke were alleged to be not 10 metres where upon they took another quick tap and scored, the rule being that you can not take the second tap quickly being overlooked by the referee to trail by 12-5. On 25 minutes under pressure on their own line Stoke won their scrum ball only for Humberstone to fumble the ball and Nigerians took advantage to add 7 points. Stoke then got into their opponents 22 from the re-start and from an attacking position lost the ball which was cleared into the Stoke half. With Van Jaarsveld and Parsons covering there seemed no danger but some how on running the ball back a miss directed pass went to a Nigerian player who scored under the posts to lead 26-5. Stoke did not give up and on numerous occasions were in their opponents 22 but got turned over when in promising positions.In the last 15 minutes of the half this happened 5 times and on the last time, on 45 minutes, were again punished as Nigerians scored another try to complete the scoring for the 1st half for Stoke to trail 31-5.

Stoke came out firing in the second half and as early as the third minute reduced the deficit by 7 point. From possession just outside the 22 Humberstone made a break to feed Buckland and was again on hand to take the return pass to score and convert his own try. On 50 minutes after re-cycling the ball from a line out Dixon was on hand to crash over for 5 points to leave the score 17-31 and giving the side belief that they could come back and win. A missed tackle on 55 minutes allowed the home side to add 5 points and extend their lead to 36-17. There followed the crucial period of the game where Stoke were camped in the opponents 22 for 10 minutes but came away with nothing. When Nigerians eventually cleared their lines to the half way they won the ball to recycle and score out wide for 41-17 advantage. Stoke again came back and on 67 minutes were awarded a free kick which Byett took quickly to feed Parsons to run 30 metres to score and with Humberstne adding the 2 points were now 41-24 down. Stoke continued to attack and after pressure Francis scored from a line out, with a fine touchline conversion from Humberstone, reducing the arrears to 10 points. With the ref confirming that there were still 8 minutes left re-newed hope appeared. The miracle was not to happen and with the last move of the game saw Nigerians score and convert to leave the final score 48-31 to the home team.

After the hard working and impressive Dixon added "On reflection we lost that game in the first 30 minutes with some very poor play and giving away too many soft tries. Too often we were tackling to high and allowing them to make ground. This was a game for the taking and we let ourselves down. We now have a week off to come out against Thanet and put things right."

Team: Parsons, Saunders, Buckland, Feausi, Van Jaarsveld (Rogers), Humberstone. Byett, Collins, Evans, Perkins, Wilson, Hampson, Northcote, Appleby (Francis), Dixon, not used I.White

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