Basingstoke down to earth with a bang.

Basingstoke 7 pts v Tabard 30 pts

After the joy of two great wins FX-backed Basingstoke were brought back down to earth on Saturday as they crashed to 30-7 home defeat against Tabard. The defeat to the London based side, who Stoke had beaten on the first weekend of the season meant that the two swapped places in the league and Stoke slipped back towards the danger zone. Tabard lead from the 5th minute when their first venture into the Basingstoke 22 resulted in an easy penalty. Basingstoke then applied pressure on Tabard and just when they were awarded with a penalty in a promising position they received their first setback from one of many strange refereeing decisions. Phil Della-savina was sin-binned for stamping and consequently the penalty was reversed and Tabard kicked into the corner and produced a push-over try. Stoke hit back immediately when Steve Drawbridge forced his way over from close range. Ian Calder kicked the conversion to bring Stoke back into the game at 10-7. This was as close as Stoke were to get to leading the game though as Tabard pinned Stoke into their own 22 with forceful drives and intelligent kicks using the wind well. Tabard were awarded several lineouts and scrums but brilliant Stoke defence kept them out. Stoke had two opportunities to clear there lines but lost both their scrums and eventually were punished when Tabard crossed for an unconverted try in the corner. Stoke looked to hit back but a lose pass allowed Tabard to fly-hack their way into Stokes 22. They were awarded a penalty, which they kicked to touch where they scored their second push over try.

Half-time came to Stokes rescue, as in the second-half they were playing with the wind and would have expected to hit back. But they failed to add to their 7 first-half points as Tabard added two more tries. After they missed two relatively easy penalties Tabard eventually crossed for their fourth try and put the game beyond any doubt after another simple, but effective lineout move. Just to add to Basingstoke's misery, Tabard added one last try in the final minute of play as their fly-half intercepted a Stoke break and ran in unopposed to give a final scoreline of 30-7. This was a disappointing performance from Stoke after the two promising performances of the previous 2 weeks. But credit must be given to Tabard though who stuck well to their gameplan and restricted Stoke from playing their usual flowing rugby.

Afterwards Ian Calder said "It was a performance that we were perhaps not mentally focused on and it didn't help that we gave them three soft tries.We tried to force the game at times instead of playing our normal style. Their forwards used the experience they have well to set up a solid platform. We need to be at are best next week both mentally and physically to get back in winning ways and Havant are the team we have to beat in the local Hampshire derby game." Basingstoke team: C Norton, Y Cullum, J rees, N Taylor, D Lambert(B Kirwan), I Calder, T Dean, S St. Bernard(M Reeve), R Baker(capt.), P Della-savina, S Drawbridge(N Hooker), K Chapman, S Buttle(N Young), M Evans, S Collins.

NEXT GAME Saturday 28th December away to Barking,National 3 South. k.o 2:15 pm.
                

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