Windsor v Aylesbury (away)

 

 

 

After a long summer of hard work training and a good set of three preseason games which all finished with wins Windsor welcomed the start of the season proper with a certain amount of well earned confidence. Windsor travelled to Aylesbury with a side fielding three new backs Tom Collins, Griff Jones and James Howard. There was also a welcome return to back rower Jonny Hayhurst after a long spell out with injury.

 

A young and seemingly much changed Aylesbury kicked off and within seconds took Windsor by surprise when the kickoff was caught by the Aylesbury winger who raced through to Windsor’s 22 metre line and only good defence halted what would have been a disastrous start to Windsor’s new season.

This started a period of intense pressure from the home side that was only occasionally relieved by Windsor moving the ball up into their opposition’s half. From one of these forays Pat Birch, having already made 30 metres and looking to go all the way to the try line, was felled by an atrocious straight arm tackle by the Aylesbury flyhalf. With the referee yellow carding the No 10 Aylesbury were reduced to 14 players, Windsor themselves were forced to make changes as Birch was forced to leave the pitch with concussion being replaced by Gary Morgan. The resulting penalty kicked at the posts was missed.

Windsor were now starting to put their own pressure on Aylesbury and in quick succession took two against the head from the seemingly bigger Aylesbury pack. Windsor were now getting into their stride and looked dangerous every time they had the ball in their possession, with great lines of running and good support.
 

After 30 minutes Windsor ‘s pressure was rewarded when on half way Paul Nunn charged down an Aylesbury kick, the ball was quickly collected and passed out to Chris Daplyn to score 10 metres from touch. With the conversion missed Windsor went into the lead 5:0
 

It was Aylesbury’s turn to apply the pressure and they were rewarded with a relatively easy penalty for offside to narrow the score but the attempt went well wide. Aylesbury continued to attack and almost immediately from a scrum near the far touch line, moved the ball well through their backs across the pitch, and with the blind side winger and fullback in the line, they scored a very well worked try. With the conversion being unsuccessful the scores were levelled at 5:5.
 

Just before halftime Windsor won another scrum against the head, no 8 Mike Darren picked up and drove towards the line, with the defence closing in, the ball was passed to centre Paul Nunn who in turn passed to scrumhalf Tom Collins who scored a well deserved try taking Windsor into the lead at half time to 10:5.

 

The second half started and it was soon apparent that both sides were looking to play for territory with both fly halves constantly kicking into their opponents half in an attempt to pin the opposition back. 20 minutes into the second half the Aylesbury Captain and second row was yellow carded for foul play. The rest of the game was played out with neither side wanting to make a mistake and despite some good attacking chances by both teams remained at 10:5 at full time.

 

Both sides will be pleased to get their first league game out of the way but Windsor may look back and feel that maybe they should have capitalised on Aylesbury playing a quarter of the game with only 14 players. That said Windsor’s play was interrupted with two players going off concussed, one through foul play, the other by accident. Windsor will be pleased with how their pack performed against a bulkier side and it is no coincidence that the Savills Man of the Match was prop Alex Lockhart. 

 

Team: Lockhart, Oxlade, Cox, Britton, McGurk, Hayhurst, Gosling, Darren, Collins, Driscoll, Howard, Birch, Nunn, Jones, Daplyn, Smilth L, Smith O, Morgan.