Sat 18 Jan 2025
Shire Hall 24 Reading II 19
The last time these two teams met in October, Shire only turned up with 13 men and were forced to borrow players from Reading. With a disjointed side, it was no surprise that Shire suffered a defeat but the feeling after that match was clear that we could beat this side with a proper team. After two weeks of frozen pitches, Shire took to the field with only a few changes from the side that demolished Aldermaston before Christmas. Jason Tunkhume took over the scrum half duties from an unavailable Sam Watkins, Laurie Moss came back into the side and Tom Fisher made one of his rare appearances as well. The early exchanges were very much in Shire’s favour and much good attacking was done in the first ten minutes with Reading forced to defend strongly. But aggressive tackling by Shire saw the ball go loose and hooker Luke Barefoot used his explosive pace to grab the ball and touch down for his 20th try and 100 points for the club. (In a former life, Luke was a winger!). Rhys Stewart was unable to land the difficult conversion, but Shire deserved the lead. Five minutes later, Luke Jellicoe stole the ball from a surprised Reading player and bamboozled the trailing defenders to cross under the posts for his 50th try for the club to give Rhys Stewart a simple conversion. Some of Shire’s attacking play was outstanding with big Duncan and Ollie Homan-Green creating large holes in Reading’s defensive set up. From one of these decisive attacks, the ball was fed to Jonny Parry who left the Reading defence in his wake to dot down under the posts, giving Rhys another simple conversion. Nineteen points to the good and with no sign of Reading actually crossing our line, Shire continued to press and from another decisive run from Ollie Homan-Green, the ball was fed to Jonny Parry who duly went over wide on the left. The conversion drifted just wide but Shire had secured their try bonus point. This was an exhilarating first half performance from Shire, and it was hoped to continue in this manner in the second half.
Half Time Score: Shire Hall 24 Reading II 0
The second half was to be a different story. Reading emptied their bench and these changes had a big influence. Shire came close a couple of times through Laurie Moss and Alistair McGregor and two lineout drives looked good but came to nothing. After 15 minutes of the second half, Reading finally breached Shire’s defence to cut the deficit to 17 points. 10 minutes later another Reading attack stretched the Shire defence and with 15 minutes to go, Reading were only 12 points behind. Shire were unfortunate to lose Alistair McGregor to what looked like a good tackle on first sight. The referee deemed this to be high and showed young Alistair a yellow card. Picture evidence later confirmed that the tackle was high, but it did seem a bit harsh. So, with 5 minutes left, Shire were faced with an uphill task to keep Reading at bay. With just two minutes remaining, Reading went over again to bring the score to 24-19. It was crucial that Shire employed good game management, and this they did admirably.
All in all, a great win for Shire, achieving a full 5 points. Their first half performance alone deserved this, and it was frustrating not to be able to maintain that level of performance. Well done to Reading for their revitalised second half but it would have been a travesty had Shire lost this match. It was good to see former player and Chairman, Roger Griffiths, on the sidelines on his way back to Canada. No game next week but Bracknell III are next up. If we can produce a similar performance, there could be a shock on the cards. The league table is becoming interesting with only 10 points separating 4th and 9th.
Final Score: Shire Hall 24 Reading II 19
Tries: Luke Barefoot, Luke Jellicoe, Jonny Parry (2)
Conversions: Rhys Stewart (2)
MOTM: Luke Jellicoe – unstoppable!
DOTD: Alistair McGregor – default option for a yellow card!
