Sat 26 Oct 2019
Shire Hall made it four wins from four with an impressive away victory at Aldermaston. Aldermaston has not been a happy hunting ground for Shire Hall in recent years , but with a strong squad were looking to make amends.
Playing with a strong wind and with rain hammering down, Shire Hall started on fire. A couple of penalties saw Shire Hall camp on the Aldermaston line for the first few minutes as the forwards looked to crash over. With gaps appearing fly half Tom Gough called for the ball wide, before stepping his man and scoring under the posts for a converted score.
This would wake Aldermaston up, who following the kick off didn’t let Shire Hall out of their half for the next 20 minutes. A succession of penalties were kicked to the corner and were repelled time and time again by a resistant Shire Hall defence. However, finally after a succession of Aldermaston knock ons were not called the somewhat bemused Shire Hall defence conceded as the Aldermaston full back cut a line through the Shire Hall. The try was unconverted.
Having conceded Shire Hall began playing rugby up the pitch again with hard running from both forwards and backs establishing a good platform. In the final act of the half with Shire Hall pressing the Aldermaston line the ball was again swung out wide. This time it was Shire Hall’s turn to be fortunate as first a knock on and then a potential offside were ignored, before Steph Margot displayed a moment of magic more fitting of the football field. With ball bouncing towards the touchline he clipped the ball past the on rushing winger, before controlling again and diving in for a try. Matt Margot converted from out wide to give a half time score of 5-14.
Shire Hall playing into the wind in the second half played with great maturity. Darren Choules making his first start at 9 manged the forwards all half expertly and saw Shire build up numerous phases and work their way up the pitch. This was complemented by an intelligent kicking game by Tom Gough at 10.
Mid way through the half Shire kicked a penalty in from of the sticks to give them a 12 point lead. This was reduced to 7 points with ten minutes to go as the hard running Aldermaston 8 bundled his way over the line following a break from the back of the scrum. The conversion was missed giving Shire a 7 point lead to defend.
Despite their only being one score in it the final ten minutes were played out in relative calm as Shire Hall looked as solid in defence as with the ball. When the the clock hit 80 minutes the ball was kicked into touch and celebrations were had all round as a Shire Hall came through against both the elements and a tough opposition. FT 10 – 17.
Tries: T Gough, S Margot
Penalties: M Margot x1
Conversions: M Margot x 2
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