Royal Wootton Basset III 15 - Minety II 22
With the 1st XV game against Melksham postponed after all three pitches at Minety failed tests on Friday due to waterlogging, all eyes were turned to the 2nd XV’s match against Royal Wotton Bassett at Ballard’s Ash.
Steve Wilson’s team started the match playing up the slope in freezing cold but bright conditions. After the initial set of exchanges yielded no points, Minety took the lead when captain Dave White crashed over for the opening try in the 19th minute. Del Murray’s conversion kick was not helped by the lack of a kicking “t” and flew wide but Minety were into a 5 – 0 lead.
It took the home side just 5 minutes to strike back, their No. 8 seizing onto a chance to score. The conversion was successful and Bassett lead 7 – 5.
Three minutes later Chris Rule, playing at full back, latched onto the end of a good backs’ move to race through to score from 20 metres out, Murray converting the try and putting Minety 12 – 7 up.
Murray scored Minety’s third try in the 37th minute to send the visitors further ahead, 17-7, with half time approaching but in added time Bassett hit back with an unconverted try.
Minety made a number of changes at half time and immediately extended their lead when hooker Dan Overend touched down for a bonus point winning 4th try. Garin Garland’s conversion sailed narrowly wide but Minety were 22-12 up.
If the healthy crowd were expecting lots more points in the 2nd half, they were to be disappointed. The only other score of the half was a Bassett drop goal on 52 minutes to reduce the lead to 22-15 for Minety, a lead that the village team comfortably held on to until the final whistle.
The win keeps Minety in 6th place with 0 points (they had been docked 15 points for conceding three matches previously). The season started with 10 teams in the league but recently Melksham and Trowbridge have fallen foul of the league and have had their points, and results expunged from the league.
Full Minety squad: Gareth Thomas, Dan Overend, Scott Glew, Matt Chisholm, Hugo Beanland, Jake Turner, Rob Hinwood, Dave White (c), Del Murray, Kieran James, Jesse Daybell, John Blair, Bram Coleman, Sam Thompson and Chris Rule. Subs: Garin Garland, Dave Cooke, Andrew Hibbard, Luke Radcliffe, Mark Glew, Andy Darrell and Ben Kingston.
Comments