Tadley were looking to build on the solid win against Wimbourne the previous weeks and the team remained virtually unchanged with fly half Chris Dennison still out through injury Charlie Cox remained at fly half Luke Titley getting his first start in the back row in place of Mike Keeley.
The Tadley side started in a determined fashion and laid down an early marker to the home team that they were going make Frome produce something out of the ordinary if they were going to get anything from this fixture.
Tadley showed huge improvements from the side’s earlier encounter at the restarts and in the contact area this enabled Tadley to retain the lion share of possession for the vast majority of the first half. With some sensible kicking by fly half Charlie Cox taking advantage of the gently sloping pitch allowed the team in gold to camp down in the Frome twenty two. Then the Tadley pack began to batter the Frome try line which was eventually breached by loose head Gordon Grierson scoring for the second time in as many games. This was duly converted by Charlie Cox.
Tadley carried on in similar fashion dominating the lineout taking much of Frome’s ball as well as their own. This meant that Frome could not kick their way out of trouble and they would have to look to their big ball carriers to get make the hard yards.
Towards the end of the first half Frome realised that they needed to find an extra gear and unfortunately this coincided with the uncharacteristic sloppy defending from Tadley and Frome were able to score two tries, one of which was converted and add three points through a penalty before the break.
The half time score at 17-7 it looked like the Frome team were able to pull it out the bag when they needed to.
Tadley now playing into the gusting wind and up the slope would need to find something else if they were going to impact further in this came. Unfortunately Frome scored an early try making the hill Tadley had to climb even greater.
Tadley dug deep and showed a resolve that they can be truly proud of. Individuals that wanted make up for previous missed tackles put in some massive hits and the favour swung back to the away side. It was now that the Tadley back line started to fire and winger Gavin Dampies finishing off a slick move to score.
With only a few minutes left on the clock Tadley still weren’t finished and from a move that started well within their own half centre Alex Pike made and inspirational run to score, which was converted by Ed Smith.
Now the score line at 22-19 and with one minute left on the clock Tadley attacked again but it was not meant to be and this is how the scores would remain.
This is without doubt the most determined performance from Tadley this season and regardless of the result one that the team can take the most from. Tadley have shown that they can compete with the top teams in this league.
No one individual stood out today all eighteen players that took part deserves recognition for their efforts. |
