Three on the trot


FX backed Stoke won this topsey turvey game by a comfortable 20 point margin, and whilst playing some exhilarating rugby for part of the match they were also guilty of allowing the opposition to reduce the points difference with some poor tackling and lack of defensive awareness. Stoke achieved their third win on the bounce to take them off the bottom of the table by scoring after 2 minutes when they won a line out on their own 10 metre line and the impressive Dixon ran into the home team's 22 to feed Calder to score under the posts and add the conversion for a 7-0 lead.
During this opening period Stoke were guilty of giving away numerous penalties and on 11 minutes suffered a kick at goal that reduced the deficit to a 7-3 lead.. What followed was the best passage of play from the Stoke team this season. The scrummage was again solid, line out ball was plentiful and the recycling of the ball was a joy to watch. On 13 minutes Tom Vincent scored a try on his debut to add 5 points. Then after a period of sustained pressure when Stoke had 2 passages of play where they put together at least 8 phases of play that resulted in a try for Roeske to score and Calder to add the 2 points for a 19-3 lead. On 21 minutes, Roeske added his second try after good work by Selwyn St Bernard, Barton and Calder for the try to extend the lead to 24-3. Although Stoke suffered a yellow card to Appleby on 23 minutes they continued to secure points with a try on 27 minutes from an unconverted try by Calder and again with 7 points added after Barton crossed the line and Calder to convert to take the margin to a 36-3 lead. Following further pressure from Stoke, the home side conceded a penalty in front of their posts which Calder duly converted to lead 39-3 with four minutes of the half remaining and to add to the home team's problems they had a player yellow carded. Stoke then committed the worst error by switching off and some extremely poor defending allowed the 14 men to score two tries one converted to leave Stoke 39-15 up at half time.

Hal time Score Old Colfeians 15 pts v Basingstoke 39 pts

Stoke started the second half controlling the game as they did so often in the first and were soon rewarded with a converted try by Appleby on 3 minutes and a second try by Barton after 5 minutes to open up a 51-15 lead. Stoke were now in a position to go on and improve their point difference, but this was not to happen. Credit given to the home side in the way in which they came back into the game with some continuity to recycling the ball but Stoke did tackle to high and left themselves exposed in defence too often. Colf's scored on 8,18,22 and 28 minutes with only one converted to get within two scores. Stoke were not helped as the last of these tries which saw Robbie Holmes yellow carded. As Stoke have showed over the last few weeks they are more resilient than before Christmas and were able to steady the game and come back with two Calder penalties in the last five minutes for a winning margin of 57-37. Many players performed well for Stoke during the purple patch but equally at times made too many errors when under pressure. Dixon was the most consistent of the players throughout the 80 minutes.

Final Score Old Colfeians 37 pts v Basingstoke 57 pts

After a very exhausted Calder commented "That shows how important it is to have the ball. On reflection we had about 60% and they had 40% and the final result was evidence of possession. Vincent had a good debut and it was nice to carry on winning ways that has now moved us off the bottom spot".

Team: Lucas, Barton, Buckland, Roeske (Chimbina), Holmes (White), Calder, Vincent, Young, Evans, Hobden (Buttle), Wilson (Hampson), Chapman, Appleby, Dixon, Sy. Bernard.

NEXT GAME Saturday 28th February home to Southend 2:30 pm.

link to RFU site