The visiting side recalled injured skipper Bailey for his first start in a number of weeks, along with Mark Tucker and the retuning Toby Smith returning to bluster their claim to gain maximum points on this tricky away visit. Tim Simpson and Gareth Cripps-Jones came in to bench for Tadley.
After last weeks opening barrage of scores from Abbey, Tadley were adamant not to let the same happen this week in the opening quarter of the game. Sadly however once again the game took a toll for the worse as Salisbury stream rolled over the Tadley defence and took what was ultimately a match winning lead into only the second quarter of the game, leading 29-6 with only 20 minutes played.
With chins and confidence starting to drop, it was left to man of the match David Seal to pressure the fly half into a mistake and for Andy Craig to fly hack the ball most the pitch and touch down and give his side a slight glimmer of hope going into the second half.
This however was only a false dawn as the Wiltshire Team closed the game out minutes into the second half with 2 simple tries and take an unassailable lead. Tadley not only had a great deal of pride at stake but must keep looking ahead to the bigger picture for the rest of the season, points for and against may still play a major part in promotion and regulation near the end of the season, this scenario must be acknowledged in all games this season.
With this fact forefront in the minds of the Tadley 15, a team with a new sense of passion and belief finished the game at Salisbury, first of all Tadley’s leading scorer Dampies smartly finished in the corner from a flat pass from Raymond after good work from the forwards, especially Colin Summers who was once again impressive in his 2nd outing for the first team this season. This was shortly followed by Dave Seal’s first try of the league Campaign who once again charged down a kick to pounce on the ball and further close the gap.
‘If only’ was properly the call from the side lines as Tadley were now starting to play in a way that would worry many a team in the league and this new style of rugby was furthermore underlined when Gareth Cripps-Jones rounded his man to smartly finish in the corner for this debut try for the 1st team.
This however turned out to be the final score of the game and although the score line showed this to be a close game, this was not a convincing performance, Tadley must learn form their mistakes and must not forget they did lose…. now they must turn this around for next weeks game with Bletchley. Another loss is out the question and the 15 players that start must put in an improved performance and sense of passion this Saturday.
Pump Technology Man of the Match. Dave Seal
Team: Collins (T.Simpson 40 mins), Choules, Lowe, Tucker (Vatcher 40 mins), Harris, Summers, Seal, Green, Bailey Capt, Raymond, Dampies, Craig, A. Pike, Smith (Cripps-Jones 68 mins) Dennison. |
