Saturday 14 November 2009
Southern Counties South
A Close Game
Corsham 1st XV 8pts – Minety 1st XV 0pts
In heavy rain and driving winds, Minety dominated the second half of this closely fought fixture but could not convert territory into points to overturn Corsham’s narrow lead.
Corsham had the wind behind them in the first half and went ahead when their number 8 picked up from the back of a five metre scrum. Darting right, he threw a dummy, slipped through a tackle and crawled over the line for a try.
Tackling solidly from numbers one to 15, Minety let nothing else past them all game. The hosts kicked a penalty goal and the sides turned round with the score at 8-nil in Corsham’s favour.
Minety camped on Corsham’s 22 for most of the second half but, though they several times came close, they could not get across the Corsham line. Probably the best chance fell to flanker Charlie Gawthropp, who came within a metre of scoring, but it was not to be.
Forced to watch from the sidelines, Minety’s injured club captain Craig Smith was favourably impressed by his team-mates’ efforts. “The scrum was solid and Charlie Gawthropp and Oli Bown both jumped well for us in the lineout. The tackling was tremendous and if two or three critical passes had gone to hand, we could have won the game.”
Minety’s next game is on Saturday 28 November when they play hosts to Oldfield Old Boys.