Windsor U14's v Newbury - LEAGUE
2nd April 2006by Dr F T Bosh
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This Sunday Windsor travelled to Newbury for their penultimate League game of the season. Unbeaten so far, they were hoping to continue this run. But the withdrawl of their top two try scorers centres Zafar Ansari and Josh Casey, left them with out their usual cutting edge in the three-quarters. In a well contested game that saw the home side grow in confidence as the visitors failed to construct decisive phases of possession. Newbury, who were not ahead at any stage of the game until the final kick of the game, won through.
Windsor kicked off and winger “Jam” Ingham was soon brought into play with an excellent tackle to stop Newbury’s first attack. The Windsor forwards looked very strong in the opening quarter and used this strength to draw in the Newbury defence as they drove possession forward in rolling mauls. When the ball came out to the backs the newly re-arranged three-quarter line were unable to get over the gain line and were often caught in possession. The two major runs from the three-quarters both came from the wingers. Dean Hadderal broke to the outside and made fully 40 yards before being caught by the cover and Ingham on the opposite side of the field had a similar break when he slipped his marker and got to the Newbury 10 metre line before being caught and was unable to offload to a supporting Russell Chester.
But these two efforts were the only real penetration for the three-quarters. Windsor had to rely on the forwards to make ground. 2nd row Jack Clemance and Sam Windmill continued their run of hardworking games and got Windsor into the Newbury 22. An indiscretion in the loose earned Alex Devereux a bloody nose and a Newbury player a yellow card. It looked an easy three points for the visitors, but the decision was to run it. Scrum half Joel Turner took the penalty from midfield and the three-quarters ran at the Newbury defence. Initially the decision to run appeared to be a poor one, as the Newbury defence was ready and up quickly, but with the Windsor forwards controlling the breakdown, Turner popped the ball to Alex Moody who crashed over to score an unconverted try.
Newbury came back strongly and Windsor were forced to tackle well to keep them at bay, especially around the loose where flanker Alex Devereux and Joel Turner dealt with continual blindside breaks by the mobile Newbury No 8. Laidler’s boot also kept Windsor out of trouble for a while, but a series of penalties against Windsor lost them the ground they had made and they were soon camped on their own try line with the Newbury No 8 taking pot shots at the try line. Being rewarded with another penalty every time he was kept out. On the third attempt he got the ball down and Newbury drew level.
Pressure at the line out gave Windsor a chance to regain the lead. A well-judged kick from Laidler took the ball into the Newbury 22 and they could not gather their own ball cleanly. Left little option the Newbury scrum half tried to set up a maul, but the ball was knocked out of his grasp by a powerful tackle and ever alert Max Wilson dropped on the ball for Windsor’s second unconverted try.
With only 5 minutes left Windsor needed to hang on and appeared to be doing that until more penalties ceded territory and Windsor found themselves in their own 22. Deep into injury time the Newbury No 8 peeled off a wheeling maul and was unstoppable as he dived into score. The Newbury kicker was left with a reasonably straight forward kick, but with no time left on the clock and this kick the difference between victory and not, he showed great strength of character to slot it over. The referee blew for full time and Windsor had no chance to comeback.
Windsor’s last league fixture is against old rivals Maidenhead at Home park on the 23rd of April and, as Windsor still have a theoretical chance of winning the league title, is not one to be missed.
RESULT:
Windsor 10 Newbury 12
Scorers:
Tries: Moody, Wilson.