Sat. 23rd Nov. Dorset & Wilts Div.2 North Swindon College Old Boys 2nds 17 Westbury 25
Westbury travelled to Wroughton to play against Swindon College Old Boys and were up against it from the start. The Old Boys were fielding the biggest pack of forwards that Westbury had come up against all season.
Undaunted, Westbury started the match in lively fashion and carried the game to the Old Boys and were first to score with a penalty kick 4 minutes into the match, when the opposition were guilty of sealing off the ball in a ruck. Aaron Vaughan kicked the points.
Immediately from the restart Swindon started to use the big forwards to try and steam roller over Westbury’s defence. During this time Westbury lost centre Sam McQueen to a shoulder injury. Shortly after that, from a Westbury knock on, the College were awarded a scrum 15 metres out. Westbury’s scrummage was completely demolished by the juggernaut of Swindon’s forwards. After a couple of resets, Swindon powered over the try line. Luckily the conversion was off target. 5 – 3 to Swindon College.
Westbury soon realised that they had to keep the ball away from the big opposition forwards and with clever ball handling and switching play from one side of the pitch to the other, plus quickly recycling the ball in the tackle, after a good quarter of an hour of hard work they managed to put wing, Jamie Dixon, in the clear to score his first try. Vaughan added the conversion.
A few minutes later a Swindon player was caught offside by being in front of his team mate and chasing the ball when he kicked out of his 22.
Quick thinking, Vaughan took a tap penalty and passed to Jamie Dixon who caught the opposition unawares and ran in for try number two. Standoff Vaughan completed the move by adding the conversion. The final score of the half was a 3 point penalty kicked by Vaughan after the Westbury full back, Josh Page was high tackled. Half time arrived with Westbury leading 20 – 5.
Within 5 minutes of the restart Dixon scored his hat trick try after both forwards and backs linking together moved the ball deep into the opposition’s half and then wide to the grateful winger. Aaron Vaughan was unable to add the extra points.
The rest of the half, the Swindon College juggernaut once more tried to steam roller the Westbury defence, but the visitors stood firm. On 18 minutes, Westbury lost a player to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle. Using the one man advantage the College were able to break down the defence and scored out wide. The conversion was missed.
With time running out Swindon added another score. After a 5 metre scrum their number 8 picked the ball and dived over the line to score his try, plus a conversion brought them within 8 points of Westbury’s score. Literally with seconds left. Westbury kicked deep into the College’s half, determined not to let the opposition score any more tries to gain a bonus point. The referee called last play and a grateful Westbury kicked the ball off the field to win 25 – 17. With both sides scoring 3 tries, it shows the importance of Vaughan’s kicking skills and taking any points on offer. That was the difference between the teams.
This was a difficult fixture, with Westbury’s scrum under pressure from the start, but the front five worked hard and with number 8, Will Dennett and scrum half, James Catley-Day, working together to secure difficult balls,l the backs had some room to manoeuvre to score the tries. A sterling effort all round.
