Sat 28 Jan 2023
Shire Hall 94 Hungerford II 5
After the losses of their last two matches, Shire were keen to get back to winning ways against Hungerford II. Shire were able to field a near full strength side with Rhys Stewart making his debut at fly half. As Hungerford were short of players, Neil Evans kindly agreed to don a different coloured shirt and play for Hungerford. The first score came after 4 minutes when a delightful cut out pass from Rhys found James Pritchard out wide who grounded easily. Rhys missed the conversion. Having scored early, Shire were keen to build the score but were pegged back when some innocuous tackling by the Shire backs allowed the Hungerford centre to cross virtually unopposed. This seemed to wake Shire up as first Jonny Parry and then a marauding Ollie Homan-Green powered down the touchline to put the score at 15-5. Jonny Parry quickly added a second before Max Davies opened his Shire scoring career with two quick tries. Luke Jellicoe then found the whitewash with a typical mazy run and the veteran Sam Watkins joined the party as he went over. The last try of the half went to Luke Barefoot and Shire were now truly in control. Although the scoreline would suggest otherwise, Shire needed to show more support for the ball carrier.
Half Time Score: Shire Hall 51 Hungerford II 5
Shire quickly got back into scoring mode when Luke Jellicoe went over for his second try under the posts. A few minutes later James Pritchard went over for his second try. It was at this point that Luke Jellicoe forgot that Neil was playing for Hungerford and passed the ball to him – this would lead to him receiving the DOTD! Laurie Moss added his first try and then Shire’s TSM (try scoring machine) Matt Margot decided to get on the scoreboard with a typical try. As the game went into the last 10 minutes, perhaps the best try of the match was scored by Max Davies as he took a ball from a lineout and dived to score in the corner. Perhaps he had been inspired by Neil’s try against Farnham Royal ? Max then scored his fourth try when he went over unopposed. This just left enough time for Laurie Moss to score his second try after some good handling by the backs. This was Shire’s biggest victory in over 10 years but the scoreline did not reflect Hungerford’s commitment and endeavour. It was amusing to hear a Hungerford player say after we’d scored our 15th try that he thought that “we’ve got them now”!
Final Score: Shire Hall 94 Hungerford II 5
Tries: Max Davies (4), Jonny Parry (2), James Pritchard (2), Luke Jellicoe (2), Laurie Moss (2), Matt Margot, Sam Watkins, Luke Barefoot, Ollie Homan-Green
Conversions: Rhys Stewart (7)
MOTM: Max Davies – 4 tries and good all round play
DOTD: Luke Jellicoe – for passing the ball to Neil who was actually playing for Hungerford!
