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Aylesbury II 41 - Gosford All Blacks II 5

SATURDAY 19TH JANUARY 2008
(2nd XV - BBO I (North))

Gosford 2nds continued their recent run of improving performances with a valiant display in defeat at Aylesbury. Despite the boggy conditions, both sides looked to run with the ball in hand often and this meant that the flow of the game was often disrupted by handling errors.

Aylesbury opened the scoring in the first 10 minutes, capitalising on a spell in the Gosford 22 by working an overlap on the left for their speedy winger to exploit (5-0). The second try came 5 minutes later when Aylesbury's burly captain and fly-half forced his way over in the left-hand corner from a tap penalty (12-0). More slack tackling from the visitors led to a third try under the posts after the fly-half made a run down the Gosford right flank (19-0). The home side ran in two more tries in the first half, the second of coming from a fast counter-attack after Gosford lost the ball in an attacking maul 15 metres out, the aforementioned pacy winger finishing off the move under the posts. This left the score at (29-0) to the home side at the break.

Gosford brought on the experienced Andy Shepherd at fly-half for the second period, but before he could help Gosford get on the attack he had to help his side out in defence. Captain Gareth Ellis managed to make a last-gasp tackle and hold up the Aylesbury 13 on the line, and more excellent Gosford tackling kept Aylesbury out. Sadly though, after a period of valiant defence, young stand-in scrum-half Tom Heydon was punished for hesitancy at a backpedalling five-yard scrum and his opposite number pounced on the loose ball to notch up the home side's sixth try (34-0).

Before Aylesbury were able to register their seventh try, there was time for Gosford to earn a much-deserved try of their own. The try was eventually snaffled up by the excellent flanker Jack Clarke, but credit must also go to the supporting pack who worked extremely hard to gain the position in the first place. Shane Turner missed the conversion (34-5). Aylesbury notched up one more try after a counter-attack from the same speedy winger who had scored twice in the first half, although this time he slipped the ball to his team mate after drawing the last man (41-5).

Despite the 36 points between the two teams, the result must be seen in the context of a lion-hearted Gosford display and the fact that the same team beat Gosford 70-0 at Stratfield Brake in October. Not once did the team lose heart throughout the game, and they kept going right until the very end. The tackling in particular was much-improved from games before Christmas, and if the team continue in this vein then they will surely have a chance of victory - next week's home game against Witney may prove to be a good opportunity.

Man of the match:Jack Clarke

Tries: Jack Clarke
Kicks: none

Gareth Ellis
Player / Reporter

Click here for the team


1 Tony Baughan
2 Liam Donnelly
3 Pete Midgley
4 Luke Burbidge
5 Chris Good
6 Chris Bennett
7 Jack Clarke
8 James Gardner

9 Tom Heydon / Andy Sheppard
10 Shane Turner / Andy Sheppard / Shane Turner
11 Tom Barrett / Barney Hughes
12 Nathan Brooks
13 Chris Sawyer
14 Gareth Ellis (capt)
15 Granville Williams

16 Barney Hughes
17 Andy Sheppard
(Rolling subs were in effect, with Shepherd replacing Turner at half-time, and then Turner coming on for Heydon with 20 minutes to play)