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Worthing 51 pts v Basingstoke 3 pts

On a cold and wet day on the south coast FX backed Stoke were taught a lesson on how to play rugby from the league leaders who played effective rugby throughout the team and making few errors along the way. Thing got off to a poor start when on 2 minutes Worthing won possession on the Stoke 10 metre line and their number 8 evaded 4 poor attempts at a tackle to set up the opening score and a lead of 7 nil. Worthing were winning a plentiful supply of ball but resolute defence by Stoke kept them out and although Worthing missed a penalty on 8 minutes it was not until 19 minutes that the home team scored again with a penalty to lead 10-nil. From the restart Stoke were awarded a penalty that Berti narrowly pushed wide but this was the start of a period of Stoke pressure. Unfortunately on 25 minutes in the home teams 22 possession was given away with a chip that was marked by the full back. He very soon turned defence into attack by taking a quick tap and launching a counter attack that went from 5 metres from their own line to score in the corner at the other end to lead 15-nil. 3 minutes later when under pressure in their own 22 a miss directed pass from a Stoke player kept the pressure on instead of clearing their line and from the following passage of play Worthing scored for another 5 points. On 32 minutes Berti did convert a penalty to reduce the score to 20-3 Worthing came back immediately when more missed tackles allowed another 5 points for the home side. Again from the restart Stoke were awarded a penalty which Berti again pushed wide to leave the half time score 25-3 to the home team.

The second half was mainly dominated by the home side with a few visits by Stoke into the home team's 22 and some resolute defending at times by Stoke. From a neutrals point of view it was a good example by Worthing of how to keep the ball and even on a wet afternoon how few errors they made. The home side scored tries on 53, 57. 70 and 75 minutes with 3 conversions to leave the final score 51-3 to the home team. What ball Stoke did win they lacked the penetration to break down a well organised defence that was a lot more street wise in their play.

After Dixon added "That is the level we must aspire to if we are to not only to compete but win games. You can see why they are leading the league and how they play not only in their units but as a team. They kept us on our back foot and continually recycled the ball to give us very little chance to clear our lines. We now have a week off to plan for our next game where we can work hard in training to look for another home win."

Team: Lucas, Rogers, Feausi, Calder, White, Berti, Byett (Humberstone), Collins, Perkins , Rushworth (Bushnall), Wilson, Northcote, Hampson, Northcote (RReece), Dixon.

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