Shire Hall 50 Crowthorne 21
It seems like ages since Shire last took the field in that bonkers game over at Farnham Royal when 111 points were scored yet we still lost by 5 points! Debuts were made by Matt Choules and Jack Mould and Shire fielded a full squad with 5 on the bench. To minimise the risk of the game being called off like last week against Thatcham, the match was played in the superb setting of a beautiful pitch at Reading School. Was this the game that Rhys Stewart finally reached the 1000 points for the club ?
The early exchanges were fairly even with both sides making good ground without any reward. After 15 minutes, the deadlock was broken by Matt Margot who went over from close range. This was after new captain Luke Barefoot had butchered a try scoring opportunity when he fumbled the ball over the line! Rhys Stewart duly added the extra points, and so Shire’s season was under way. Good powerful runs were made by Jack Mould, Jamie Pedder and Gwyn Robins in particular and it was 10 minutes later when Andy Ryan put on the afterburners to leave the Crowthorne defence in arrears. No conversion but Shire were in the ascendency. Good defensive tackling by Shire nullified the Crowthorne attacks and the only ground they seemed to gain came from the cultured boot of their fly half. A great break by Ed Gallen with good support from Gwyn Robins created the opportunity for Matt Margot to score his second try of the game. The successful conversion from Rhys Stewart took him past the 1000 points for the club. Billy Wigley was fortunate not to be sent to the sin bin with what appeared to be a deliberate knock on, but the referee was kind! Crowthorne did not believe they were out of this game and duly scored a deserved try which was converted to reduce the deficit to just 12 points. Jack Mould was unfortunately forced to leave the field due to injury which ended his very promising debut. He was replaced by Luke Jellicoe.
Half Time Score: Shire Hall 19 Crowthorne 7
Half time saw the introduction of Rory Mears and Dan Smedley to replace Neil Evans and Jamie Pedder. This had been a very promising first half from Shire with the forwards running hard and the backs being well marshalled by Dave Tridgell to create good attacking platforms. Six minutes into the half, Shire secured the try bonus point when Luke Barefoot darted over from 25 metres to which Rhys Stewart added the extra points. Jacob Kenny and Tom Overend took the field to replace Matt Choules and Alex Webb and a few minutes later, Kris Sharma popped up from nowhere to score Shire’s 5th try. No conversion from Rhys but it was Crowthorne who scored next to reduce the deficit to 17 points. Shire’s response was immediate when Burglar Bill, aka Luke Jellicoe, danced his way through a tired defence to score Shire’s 6th try to which Rhys Stewart added the conversion. It must be mentioned that Shire should have scored another try when Luke Barefoot burst through and passed to Ollie Homan-Green to score. Unfortunately, the eagle-eyed referee spotted that the ball had been passed forward by Luke in the try area! 5 minutes later a superb kick by Tom Overend into an empty back field resulted in a poor clearance by Crowthorne which the ever-lively Kris Sharma pounced on to score his second try. Rhys Stewart’s successful conversion took him to over 1000 points for the 1st XV. Fair play to Crowthorne as they responded with a try by their second row despite a brave attempt by Billy Wigley to stop him. The final play of the game saw Rory Mears sprint in from 15 metres and touch down with the most ridiculous Ash Splash! With Rhys having achieved his goals, Billy Wigley attempted the conversion, but it could have better!!
So first game of the season and the full 5 points achieved. From the side lines, this was an excellent performance with hardly any mistakes. Our penalty count was good with Shire conceding less than 5 penalties all game. Set scrums were solid and lineouts were good with the imperious Gwyn Robins at his best. Kris Sharma provided good service all game and Matt Margot’s two tries took him to just two short of 100 tries for the club. Our thanks to Reading School in allowing us to use their great pitch. Next up is the rearranged game against our neighbours, Reading III who have won one and lost one this season.
Final Score: Shire Hall 50 Crowthorne 21
Tries: Matt Margot (2), Kris Sharma (2), Andy Ryan, Luke Barefoot, Luke Jellicoe, Rory Mears
Conversions: Rhys Stewart (5)
MOTM: Andy Ryan – a fine all-round game both in attack and defence (Shout out to Kris Sharma)
DOTD: Luke Barefoot – fumbled the ball over the line, forward pass in the try area and backchat to the referee!
