Vast improvement!

Basingstoke 13 pts v London Scottish 29 pts

Stoke showed a better performance this week against London Scottish but again failed to open their league account. Having been 14-nil down at half time F-X backed Stoke fought back to 14-13 down with 20 minutes left but couldn't finish off the opposition who finished the strongest. Once again the first half was a catalogue of unforced errors that led to far too many penalties conceded by Stoke and had the visitors had a more consistent kicker then Stoke would of been more severely punished as they missed 3 kickable penalties in the first half. Also the flow of the game was not helped by the referee who gave over 30 penalties during the game. The majority of the first half was dominated by the visitors who found themselves 9-nil up after 22 minutes with 3 penalties and some resolute tackling from the home team denied many scoring chances. Both teams fell foul of the ref each having a player yellow carded, the visitors a prop on 19 minutes and the hard tackling Chimbima for the home side on 22. It looked like the score would stay at 9-0 going into the break when on a running clock there had been 45 minutes played when the ref showed Dixon a yellow card during a period of play when Stoke were successfully defending their own line. The offence was for playing the ball on the ground when clearly Dixon was on his feet. As a result of the penalty given Scottish scored an unconverted try to lead 14-0 at the break.

Stoke took the game to the visitors and for a period of 25 minutes they were the better side. Playing the ball in the visitors half and getting phases of play together is was the visitors on the back foot and conceding penalties. Humberstone converted two out of three difficult penalties to reduce the deficit to 14-6 and the home supporters were getting behind their team. Stoke continued to be the better side and were again rewarded when Dixon made a good break into the visitors 22 and when 7 metres out had Wilson on his shoulder to crash over 5 metres from touch. In blustery conditions Humberstne nailed the conversion to the delight of the crowd to reduce the score to 1 point difference. It was now game on. With the last 15 minutes and having fought back so well it was the visitors that re-grouped the better and finish the stronger running the ball at Stoke and having a slice of luck on their side and again some poor defensive kicking from Stoke didn't help the cause. Scottish scored a penalty and a converted try to extend their lead to 22-13 with 5 minutes to go. Then on full time with Stoke trying to force the game the visitors scored with the last play for 7 points to win 29-13, a scoreline that does not reflect how close the game was. For Stoke Stirling won good line out ball and Dixon was always a threat in the loose. Cimbima put in some big tackles, Humberstone impressed, particularly with the boot, and fellow debutante Northcote did some good work before going off with a shoulder injury.

Dixon added "That was another step up for the team and we showed that when we play our own brand we are competitive. We yet again let ourselves down with lack of discipline in giving away to many penalties and many of them for the same infringement.The final score flattered Scottish and I was pleased to hear our own supporters being vocal in their support."

Team:B Parsons, J V Jaarsveld(M Lucas), V Feausi, E Chimbina, O Rogers, S Humberstone, D Lillywhite, P Perkins, M Evans, J Davenport(I White), A Wilson, R Stirling, S Appleby, J Dixon, T Northcote(C Hampson)

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