Match Report

Trojans vs. Basingstoke – 0-57

19th November 2011

Stoke scored nine tries against a side that 2 weeks earlier they failed to score any and in the process played some exhilarating rugby. With both Chichester and Sidcup losing the top 4 sides have now all won 9 and lost 2 with Stoke in third place a point behind the joint leaders.

All nine tries were scored by the backs but it was often the forwards who put the graft in to win the ball or turn it over along with some good counter attacking rugby, sometimes from their own 22.

Early exchanges saw Stoke start to dominate proceedings, particularly in the scrum, and wasted their 1^st chance of a score on 10 minutes when an overlap was created but not used and the ball was turned over.

The opening score came on 14 minutes following the 1^st period of sustained pressure from the visitors. The forwards kept the ball amongst themselves for several phases before the ball being given to the backs and Guilfoyle cruising through a gap to score and with Humberstone adding the conversion led 7-0.

From the re-start a loose ball was picked up by Fish to make the initial break on half way to pass to the supporting Guilfoyle to feed toGardnerto sore in the corner for an unconverted try and lead 12-0.

On 20 minutes Stoke extended their lead with a try following another superb but simple team effort. The forwards secured a turn over on the 10 metre line, and following 2 phases of play the backs were given the ball to pass down the line and Cummings to score in the corner. Humberstone adding the touch line conversion and were now 19-0 ahead.

The bonus point try was scored on 35 minutes following a series of kicks from both sides until a kick from Trojans found Humberstone just outside his 22. His long pass infield to Cummings launched a brilliant counter attack. The next pass saw the ball with Guilfoyle who drew the last man to give a simple overlap pass to Kelly on halfway. Kelly showed what he does best and outpaced any covering defence to score and the conversion from Humberstone made it 26-0.

Stoke finished the half with another score from inside their own 22 on 39 minutes. The forwards won their own scrum ball and Fish fed Humberstone going down the blind side channel who put in a chip kick which was gathered on the full by Cummings to make ground to halfway. He fed Gardner to race to the 22 before he timed a nice unselfish off load to the supporting Gleadowe to score and Humberstone again adding the extras for a half time score of 33-0.

The 1^st 20 minutes of the 2nd half saw Stoke having their obligatory period of play where they think its job done and take their foot off the gas. As a result Trojans were having more of the ball but could do nothing with it and Stokes defence coped easily with anything thrown at them.

On 60 minutes Stoke were defending on their own 10 metre line when they forced a turnover. The ball was passed to Hore who fed Gleadowe on the half way to once more gallop to the line for an unconverted try and extend the lead to 38-0.

Credit to the home side as they once again were having a period where they had the ball but good defence from Stoke kept them out. On 65 minutes, having been issued a warning from the ref about releasing the player in the tackle, saw John given a yellow card for not doing so.

On 70 minutes Stoke once more secured a turn over ball inside Trojans own 22. With space out wide Hore and Gleadowe combined well before Kelly finished off the move with yet another try and the score line now 43-0.

The next score came on 75 minutes following a turn over ball in their own 22 and again a great piece of counter attacking. Having secured the ballGardnerfed Hore who crossed the 22 metre line. Gleadowe continued the move up to half way before passing infield to Guilfoyle to outpace the defence and score. Cummings added the conversion to bring up the 50 points.

The final passage of play saw the ninth try scored and in doing so it brought a hat trick to Gleadowe. Following another turn over on half way the ball was passed to the centre to score under the posts and with Cummings adding the conversion for the final score of 57-0.

After such an emphatic win head coach Croker added “Today we saw how simple rugby is. The forwards did their job, which is to win the ball and the backs did their job which is to use it. I thought our decision makers had a good game which allowed us to play our patterns and choose the right options. The players did everything that we asked of them which has left all the coaches very happy.”

Stoke struggled to find any continuity in this Hampshire Cup quarter final and scraped through but could easily have lost the match. Trojans, having won only 2 of their league games, had opportunities to win but did not finish off the scoring chances they had.

            Champion backed Stoke made too many errors chose to kick away possession and not counter attack, and as a result there lacked the fluidity seen this season. For a side that has been averaging over 3 tries a game they did not create many scoring chances and allowed their opponents to stay in the game.

            Early exchanges were pretty even with the play taking place in the middle of the field until the 10^th minute when Stoke applied pressure for the 1^st time and were awarded a penalty which was dragged wide by Humberstone which was repeated 3 minutes later to leave the game scoreless.

            It was now the turn of the visitors to have their own spell of pressure following a yellow card to Saunders for offside on the halfway, which did seem harsh as it was not in a danger zone or in context with the game so far. A scrum 20 metres out for Trojans saw their fly half see space behind the Stoke back line and a clever chip was nearly rewarded with a try only for the bouncing ball to elude the winger and Patterson to touch down.

            On 20 minutes it was the visitors who opened the scoring with a try which came as a result of one of many Stoke mistakes. Secure ball was won on the 10 metre line and Stoke went blind. The ball was turned over in the tackle and Trojans pounced. A neat chip saw a kind bounce go to hand for a Trojans player who cleverly off-loaded to a supporting player to score by the posts and a simple conversion missed, leaving Stoke trailing 5-0.

            It was now the turn of Stoke to have territorial advantage with one good passage of play being stopped illegally and it was the turn of the visitors to be reduced to 14 players. Even with a man advantage Stoke struggled to make it count with errors creeping in. Their only reward was a Humberstone penalty on 33 minutes to now trail 5-3.

            On the stroke of half time Stoke managed to take the lead with another Humberstone penalty following another yellow card for Trojans and went to the break 6-5 up.

            Stoke started the second half in great style by gaining possession from their own re-start and were held up short of the line with a scrum 5 metres out to follow. Good pressure from the Stoke forward saw the scrum break up and having to be re-set. From that scrum Stoke were rewarded with a penalty which they chose to have another scrum but the pressure came to nothing and ended with a Cummings drop goal attempt going wide. That period of pressure was about as good as it got for the home side as their play slowly started to deteriorate.

            Trojans worked hard as a team and were good at the breakdown to slow the ball down but even when Stoke did win the ball, potential overlaps were too often spurned by players making the wrong decisions and going into contact rather than pass and support.

            Stoke missed the opportunity to extend the lead on 57 minutes with a missed penalty but made amends 3 minutes later when Cumming converted a penalty to now lead 9-5.

            As a spectacle the last 20 minutes did not see a lot of action but the visitors did make 3 good breaks which luckily for Stoke were stopped by covering defenders before Trojans could convert any into try scoring chances. With only a try needed for the visitors it kept both sets of supporters watching nervously until the final whistle.

            Afterwards a less than happy head coach Croker added “From my point of view that was a terrible performance by us. Our execution was poor and as a result did not play to our patterns. This was also linked to a lot of poor decision making and as a result gave away the ball too easily. In the second half we did far too many loose kicks when we could have ran with the ball which again meant we were giving away the ball. The best thing I can say about today’s game is that it was a win, we will watch the DVD and work on the technical side of what was poor and put right in training for next week.”   

             Finally the whole playing squad would like to thank Wallace’s mate Grom for not only providing the Wendsleydale cheese for the half time but also for his invaluable support in all that he has done so far this season as all will miss him following his 2 year posting as part of his job.

Match Report

Basingstoke vs. Sidcup – 21-22

29th October 2011

For the second home game in a row Stoke lost in the last few minutes to a side one place above them this time by a single point with 2 minutes left of normal time, and as a result slipping to 4^th place in the league.

            Champion backed Stoke had a scintillating 1^st half performance where they scored 3 tries that could easily have been six or seven and spent the 2^nd half defending with Sidcup making use of their forwards and denying Stoke the ball to snatch a dramatic win.

            Neither side helped themselves with both teams having 2 players yellow carded, the visitors losing their players in the 1^st half and Stoke in the 2^nd half and once more the amount of penalties conceded by the Stoke side in the 2^nd period was worrying.

            Stoke started brightly playing into the elements but found themselves behind on 4 minutes. Sidcup kicked a long clearance from inside their 22 and was collected by Patterson on the 22. Looking to counter attack he then chipped the ball but the opposing winger caught the ball and sauntered in under the post for a converted try and lead 7-0.

            Stoke were slowly getting into their stride using the backs to good effect to make territory and missed a penalty on 12 minutes with the wind dragging the ball wide.

            On 14 minutes Gleadowe made a good break on his own 10 metre line before Kelly and Humberstone made ground into the visitors 22 before the final pass back inside to the supporting Gleadowe was unfortunately knocked on when a try looked on.

            This was the start of some enterprising play from Stoke and on 20 minutes an overlap was created for what again looked like a scoring opportunity only for Patterson to cut inside and not use the overlap and conceding a penalty 5 metres from the line.

            Stoke continued to cut holes in the Sidcup defence or create overlaps with ease and looked to have opened the scoring when Patterson dropped the scoring pass but regathered to cross the line only for the ref to have adjudged the ball to have been knocked on.

            On 26 minutes with pressure building from Stoke and good breaks from Guilfoyle and Gleadowe Sidcup were shown their 1^st yellow card where a potential penalty try could have been given and Humberstones penalty attempt held up in the wind meant Stoke were still scoreless.

            With only 6 minutes of the half left the visitors were shown another yellow card and were down to 13 men for a period. Stoke finally got their 1^st try following a scrum when Humberstone fed Kelly coming in off his wing to slice through from 20 metres out to score with Humberstone adding the extras.

            From the restart Sidcup eventually got into the Stoke half and were awarded a penalty which dropped under the crossbar. Stoke then scored a beauty of a try with Fish taking a quick penalty on his own 22. Support was on hand from Kelly then Staff before Gleadowe finished the move with a try in the corner. Humberstone converted from wide out to bring up his 100 points for the season and Stoke now led 14-7.

            On the 40 minute mark Stoke once more looked to have scored when some superb handling from Stoke saw Guilfoyle make another break to feed Gleadowe to dive for the touchdown only to have the ball knocked out of his hands before grounding the ball.

            Stoke kept up the pressure and on 42 minutes following another solid scrum 3 phases of play created a gap for Hore to score and Humberstone added the conversion to lead 21-7 at half time in doing so probably giving the best 1^st half performance for a long time.

            With the crowd looking for more of the same in the 2^nd half it was the visitors who played into the elements and dominated the half with their own brand of simple rugby. Keep the ball with your forwards, keep it tight and punish the opposition when they give away penalties and kick to the corners. This they did this very effectively and denied Stoke the ball.

            On 55 minutes following several penalties given away by Stoke, Sidcup kicked for touch and were in Stokes 22 before pressure told and a try was scored and a good conversion reduced arrears to 21-14.

            With Stoke still struggling to get any foothold on the game the ref had reached the stage where a yellow card was coming and it was Fish who had a 10 minute rest on 60 minutes.

            Sidcup made the man advantage tell when on 63 minutes following another line out catch and drive the dropped the ball over the line but it was only a minute later when they repeated the same manoeuvre to score an unconverted try and now trail 21-19.

            The next 10 minutes saw some good defending by Stoke but once more a yellow card was given and this time it was Young who was the culprit. Still more defending from Stoke kept the narrow lead until the 78^th minute, when Stoke were again penalised at the break down, for Sidcup to get the 3 points and now lead 22-21.

            Any final efforts to get back and a scoring opportunity for Stoke did not happen and what looked like a winning half time situation was snubbed out by good simple tactics by Sidcup.

            Afterwards a reflective James Croker added “The 1^st half was probably the best 40 minutes we have played this season. The forwards gave us a good platform and the backs were running good lines in attack. We denied them the ball but if we are going to beat the best teams in the league we have got to be more clinical when try scoring opportunities come around. If we had done that we could have been out of sight by half time. In the 2^nd half we did not deal well with their mauling game and were not aggressive enough with our counter rucking. Once again the amount of penalties we concede was annoying and as a result we were putting ourselves under pressure.”