Saturday 20 November 2010
Dorset & Wilts Division 1 North
Overlaps!
Calne 1st XV 65 pts – Minety 1st XV 0 pts
Struggling with yet more injuries, a weakened Minety first team went down heavily away against Calne on Saturday.
Injuries and absences are making this a difficult season for Minety. In the last fortnight, one first-team player has gone to spend the winter in the Alps while another has just left for Australia. Scrumhalf Richard Fisher broke his ankle in last week’s game against Chippenham, another player broke his nose and, just to complicate things further, several other players were unavailable this weekend because they were working or going to the internationals.
Minety were therefore forced to draw on a further five second team players to fulfil this fixture and while everyone did their best and played their part, the resulting side lacked cohesion and co-ordination. Struggling to sustain attacking opportunities, they also missed too many first-up tackles in defence, which left them unable to contain their lively opponents.
Calne, for their part, were in fine form, repeatedly creating and exploiting overlaps which, as the final score shows, enabled them to run in a steady stream of tries.
Minety will do their best to regroup this Saturday when they visit Sutton Benger for a replay of a league fixture which was abandoned due to injury earlier in the season.