Sat 8 Mar 2025
Shire Hall 17 Windsor II 48
When these two teams met in November, Shire were mauled by a Windsor side full of flamboyant Fijiians. Shire fielded a full side even though no University students were available this week. Gwyn Robins was pressed into action in the unaccustomed role of the second row whilst Rhys Stewart made another appearance on the flank. Shire kicked off and within 30 seconds had recorded what has to be the fastest try in Shire Hall history when Burglar Bill aka Luke Jellicoe intercepted a pass and went over unchallenged under the posts, giving Rhys Stewart an easy conversion. Windsor’s response was immediate and after a good passage of play, they went over to tie the scores and all this in under 3 minutes! A further good play from a lineout saw them cross again after only 8 minutes. Some of the tackling by Windsor seemed dubious from the side line but went unpunished but it was quite clear that Shire were on the wrong side of the referee as they were pinged for similar offences. Windsor provided the funniest play of the game when their scrum half kicked a penalty on their own 5 metre line to touch at a complete right angle gaining them all of no metres! A clever move from a lineout caught Shire out and this was quickly followed by a flowing move by the Windsor backs to create space to give them their bonus try point. On the half hour though, a great run by Gwyn Robins saw him create enough space for Luke Barefoot to use his explosive pace and go-go-gadget arms to reach out to score. Rhys Stewart could not add the conversion but Shire were back in the game. In the last play of the half, Windsor went over again to give them a 17 point lead.
Half Time Score: Shire Hall 12 Windsor II 29
The Windsor midfield of Fijians were proving difficult to stop despite the best efforts of Joe Tett and Luke Jellicoe. The referee’s patience was broken when a clumsy challenge by Ollie Homan-Green was deemed to be worthy of a yellow card, but Shire weathered the storm for most of the 10 minutes that he was off with a fantastic defensive display to keep Windsor out. After 50 minutes though, Windsor went over for their 6th try of the game. This was quickly followed by two further converted tries with some slick handling. In true Shire spirit, they responded, and Neil Evans’ strong run took him over to clearly score. However, the referee did not agree that the ball had been grounded and so disallowed Neil’s effort. The resulting goal line drop out by Windsor went straight into touch and so Shire had a 5 metres scrum. Matt Margot picked up from the base and nearly made the line but from the subsequent ruck, Rhys Stewart went over to bring his personal points total for the season closer to 100 points. Another yellow card, this time for Neil Evans for going straight over in a ruck did not help Shire’s cause but surprisingly Windsor were unable to capitalise and there were no further scores.
This was a much improved performance against a talented Windsor side who were just faster and tackled really hard – just ask Alistair! The last league game is in two weeks’ time when we travel to High Wycombe to whom we narrowly lost earlier in the season. Hopefully all our students will be back and we can field a quality side and finish in a creditable mid table position.
Final Score: Shire Hall 17 Windsor II 48
Tries: Luke Jellicoe, Luke Barefoot. Rhys Stewart
Conversion: Rhys Stewart
MOTM: Alex Webb – fielded all the aerial bombardment with confidence and ran the ball back with purpose.
DOTD: Neil Evans – yellow card!
