Oakmeadians v Trowbridge
3 November 2007
5
-29
1. Mike Garrett
2. Mark Stephenson
3. Stuart Batt
4. Catalin Raileanu
5. Will Croker
6. Jack Hennings
7. Tim Flower
8. Tom Stradwick
9. Steve Harman
10. Jamie Tryska
11. Jeandre Tait
12. Mike Notobartolo
13. Ed Bayliss
14. Tom Morgan
15. Sam Collins
Replacements
16. Tom Blackburn
17. Dan Porter
18. James Croker
The visit of league
leaders Trowbridge was always likely to provide a stern test for
Oakmeadians and the task was made even harder with the late
withdrawals of number 8 Hayden Hokianga and winger Seveloni
Kurewaka through injury and illness respectively.
Trowbridge started strongly and an early period of pressure
resulted in a try for outside centre Lloyd Davis which he duly
converted. Oaks responded well, however, and good work by the pack
after a 5m scrum created a little space which was well exploited by
scrum half Steve Harman, whose clever pass found fullback Sam
Collins running a great line. Collins cut through the Trowbridge
defence to cross close to the corner. Trowbridge, however, soon
stretched their advantage, with captain Adam Sullivan combining
well with fullback Ashley Chalk following a good scrum by the
visitors to cross for a try. The conversion was missed but the
visitors led 12 – 5.
The rest of the first half was fairly well balanced with the home
side more than holding their own and enjoying the edge in both
territory and possession but unable to turn this slight advantage
into points in the face of some solid Trowbridge defence. The best
chance came towards the end of the half when a swift counter attack
set up winger Jeandre Tait who couldn’t quite beat the cover
defence. The resulting lineout was well gathered by Oaks, who,
lacking a specialist hooker, had been struggling at the lineout
until then, setting up a good forward drive. From the touchline
they appeared to have crossed only for the referee to call for a 5m
scrum. Once again the home pack pressurised but good work in
defence by the visitors kept them at bay and a defensive kick to
touch signalled the end of the first half.
Trowbridge made three changes for the beginning of the second half
and again started strongly with a nice reverse pass splitting the
home defence and allowing Trowbridge second row Nick Lawes to cross
under the posts and with the conversion duly added, the visitors
lead was stretched to 19 – 5. Oakmeadians stuck at the their task
and continued to create chances with centre Mike Notobartolo, in
particular, going close. When the next score did come, however, it
was for the visitors, with an interception leading to at try for
inside centre Alex Hill, again converted by his centre partner
Lloyd Davis and, with just under ten minutes to go, it was Davis
who sealed the win with a penalty, taking his tally for the day to
14 points. Again Oaks showed great character to create try scoring
opportunities towards the end of the match and defended stoutly at
the death to prevent a further score by the visitors.
Although Trowbridge ran out worthy winners, Oakmeadians were never
outclassed and the final score didn’t really reflect the balance of
play and they will feel that had a couple of marginal decisions
gone their way and with a little more luck they could have pushed
the visitors even harder.