So close, Stoke go down 15-11


Stoke suffered a defeat at home to Southend in a game that they should of won. Stoke dominated for long periods of play and had territorial advantage for much of the match but some aimless kicking let them down from recording their fourth win on the trot. Stoke started brightly and put pressure on the visitors in their own 22. In the first 15 minutes Buckland seemed to be clear of the defence only to be called back for a dubious forward pass on both occasions and add to that 2 missed penalty attempts by Calder, one which hit the post, showed the dominance that Stoke had. Calder did convert a penalty on 16 minutes to give a 3-0 lead to Stoke. The front row of Young, Evans and Hobden were performing superb in the scrums and this made for a solid platform to work from. Buckland made another fine break but could not find support to finish off. Add to this a 5 meter penalty that Vincent chose to tap and go only to be held up on the line and Stoke could of been more points up. During this spell and too often during the game Stoke players tried to kick through the visitors defence instead of taking the ball into contact and re-cycling which ended up giving the ball away enabling Southend to clear their lines. Sothend's first visit of any note into the home team's half led to a penalty which they missed but due to Stoke's tackling the visitors were limited in possession. However this changed slightly when St. Bernard was yellow carded and Southend responded with a penalty on 32 minutes to even the scores.

Half time Basingstoke 3 pts v Southend 3 pts

Stoke again started the second half the better team with set play still giving a good platform. However on 48 minutes Southend managed to work an overlap and despite some valiant covering in defence scored an unconverted try to lead 8-3. Unlike at Southend earlier in the season Stoke rallied and kept the visitors in their own half. They were rewarded on 57 minutes with Buckland finishing of a good passage of play to level at 8 all. On 63 minutes Stoke's pressure was again rewarded with 3 point from a Roeshe drop goal to give Stoke a 11-8 lead. Whilst Stoke kept trying to play open rugby they at times should of played behind their opponents and as a result often gave the ball away. With Southend not looking like scoring it was ironic that a kick from Stoke was charged down and allowed a lucky bounce into the arms of the Southend player to gather and score under the posts for a converted try and a lead of 15-11 with only 4 minutes remaining. During the final period of play Stoke had possession but could not score and were not helped when a kick to the corner for a line out missed touch and allowed Southend to touch down and clear with a 22.

After Calder added "That was a game we lost rather than a game they won. Too often we were static in attack rather than coming from depth which is why we kicked too much. Credit to all the forwards for their efforts and particularly the front row. We were not helped by late changes before the game that meant some positional changes for the back three."

NEXT GAME Sunday 7th March home to Gosport Hampshire Cup semi-final 3:00 pm.

link to RFU site