Hungerford 41 Pts v Phoenix 17 Pts

Phoenix traveled to Hungerford RFC for its second league match of the year, looking for a stronger performance than that on the opening weekend. However, this was always going to be a tough challenge to meet with Phoenix forced for the second week running to make a large number of changes, with only 6 players from last week’s match in the starting line-up.

The match started fairly evenly but soon Hungerford started to put Phoenix under pressure, keeping the ball in the Phoenix half for an extended period. However on 10 minutes, against the run of play, the ball was kicked forward and James Flynn did well to keep the ball from going into touch. His hooked kick guided the ball towards the Hungerford try line and Tom Porter, in support, followed Flynn over to score the first try of the match. 5-0 to Phoenix. But Hungerford were not to be unduly perturbed, and were quickly in the lead with 2 tries in 5 minutes – 12-5 to Hungerford. Phoenix were constantly under pressure with Hungerford playing a quick offloading game, and with the Hungerford full back relishing in broken fields, Phoenix were almost completely out of the game with half an hour gone, the score by now 24-5 to Hungerford. But just as Hungerford were threatening again, Tom Pell intercepted another attempted Hungerford off –load and raced clear to score a converted try. With half time approaching, the score was now a more competitive 24-12, only 2 tries in it.

The second half, however, continued in much the same vein as most of the first half and Hungerford, with its quick-recycling, quick-offloading game, kept Phoenix on the back foot for most of it, scoring a further three tries to take the score to 41-12. Phoenix was competitive in patches, especially when the ball was kept tight, with Hungerford struggling to hold back series of pick-and-go’s. But all too often the ball was turned-over and the Phoenix XV was left with nothing to show for its effort. However with 5 minutes of the match left, Nigel Coltman scored a late consolation try off another series of pick-and-go’s and although the team pushed hard, Phoenix was unable to score a fourth try which would have secured a valuable bonus league point. Final score 41-17.

Although the scoreline was comprehensive, there were many positives to be taken out of the game. Director of Rugby Tim Schofield commented: “We were not far off the pace, but unfortunately we let them feed off loose ball and they managed to establish and keep the momentum for most of the match. We also need to keep our discipline – we received 2 yellow cards, which didn’t help – and learn to not antagonize the referee.”

Phoenix will look to get its league campaign back on track against Littlemore at Institute Road this Saturday, kick off 3pm. All spectators are welcome.

Phoenix: Tom Porter (Capt), Hilling, Dibb, Wincomb, D Symonds, Botes, Castle-Mason, Coltman; Pell, Byrne, Flynn, Bogalski, Osbourne, Kilby, Winters

Subs: Lloyd, Richardson, Roche