Phoenix 13 Pts v Slough 28 Pts

On Saturday the first team played Slough at home in a double header. Slough have just dropped out of the league above and we were expecting a tough game. This week was an unusual one for Phoenix as we had unbelievable strength in the backs, but were missing a fair few of our first team forwards. Had we had our normal 7,8 and jumpers we could have taken this game but unfortunately we had players in the pack out of position and Slough exploited this.

Slough kicked off with the wind behind them, a scrum resulted in our 22, in the early stages of the game Slough had definite ascendancy in the pack. They won the ball and went blind side a few times, defence fell short and they scored 5-0

Phoenix then fought back, Kieran Roche feeding the ball to our 2 strong centres and many yards were made by both Christoph Wardle and Glen Orborne. Slough got phased by this with a punch being thrown and a multitude of penalties resulting however no yellow card. Through all this Ainslie Campbell slotted 2 conversions. 6-5 to Phoenix.

Slough attacked again and, with poor midfield defence from Phoenix, scored again, with the conversion charged down. A few minutes later they managed to slot a penalty from midfield. 13-6 to Slough.

However shortly afterwards, Kieran Roche kicked a clever through-ball into the Slough half and Christoph ran in a spectacular try making the score 13-13.

Unfortunately we then had a kick charged down and Slough managed to score an unconverted try just before the half to bring the half time score 18-13 to Slough.

Only 5 down and now the wind behind us, the signs were good for Phoenix to turn things around and win the game. However, Phoenix received 2 yellow cards in the second half (the referee decided to now card on the breakdown) with this and defence still not up to par, we leaked 2 more tries.

Final score 28-13

Man of the match was Glen Osborne who at all times was totally committed to getting the victory, great on defence and always dangerous on attack

Phoenix: Tom Porter, R Gill, E Dibb, N Wincomb, L Maundrill, J Willis, M Lloyd (captain), A Brench, T Pell, A Campbell, K Roche, G Osborne, C Wardle, C Varey, B Coomber

Subs: J Richardson, L Philpot, C Mansell