Saturday 12 February 2011
Dorset & Wilts Division 1 North
Minety let loose
Minety 1st XV 41 pts – Cricklade 5 pts
Cricklade competed well up front but had no answer to the pace of Minety’s threequarters.
The visitors started well. Scrummaging powerfully and looking determined in the loose, they won more than their fair share of possession and ran positively whenever they had the chance.
So when Minety centre Robin Greenway took ball in his own 22 with quarter of an hour on the clock, nothing much seemed on. But his acceleration up the hill took him to half-way before Cricklade could close him down, and his offload set winger Ryan Dowling charging up the left touchline all the way to the try line for the first score of the game.
A suspicion that Cricklade lacked pace was belied by their immediate response to this setback. In no time at all, they were back on Minety’s 22, whisking the ball down their threequarter line. Pete Clements got his hands on it, beat his tackler and sped in for a try which put the sides back on equal terms.
But that was it. For the rest of the game, although their pack won a fair share of the ball, Cricklade were not able to do anything with it. Tackling with firm intent, the outstanding Minety back row of David Hazell, Kuldeep Singh and Olivier Brassatt mopped up all their opponents’ efforts close to the scrum while, out wide, the Minety threequarters held a firm line that Cricklade could not breach.
And the difference was that, when Minety got a chance to run with the ball, they usually scored.
Dowling soon added a second try in the corner, and then flyhalf Tom Fitzcharles put in an impressive 70 metre dash to score a spectacular try up the slope, Dowling’s successful goal kick making it 17-5 at the break.
It was Dowling who got the scoreboard going in the second half too, running in a try to complete his hat-trick after Minety fullback Reuben Saunders had burst into the threequarter line to make the extra man.
Saunders himself ran in the next try, scooting 60 metres downhill to score.
Hazell linked with his scrumhalf Andy Brown to pile over for a try from a five metre scrum which Fitzcharles converted before the Minety threequarters put the icing on the cake with a move which involved all the backs. Picking up loose ball in Minety’s 22, Fitzcharles linked with his team mates who moved the ball down the line to Dowling on the left touchline. With one man to beat, he delicately chipped the ball inside for Russell Barstow to run onto and score.
Barstow’s conversion of his own try made it a convincing 41-5 to Minety at the final whistle.
This Saturday, Minety host Avonvale.