Westbury 5 – 49 Sutton Benger – Dorset & Wilts Division 2 (North), Sat 4th Feb

Westbury had high hopes for this fixture, having run Sutton Benger close earlier in the season. 

Those hopes were soon dashed in the first half when the visitors ran in five unanswered tries, three conversions and two penalties. Sutton Benger totally dominated the play and Westbury had very little ball to work with, but what they had was either turned over in the tackle or the passes dropped.

Westbury’s defence was also poor with players missing tackles or getting out of position and leaving huge gaps for the opposition to run through. The score at half time was 37 – 0 to Sutton Benger.

During the half time break some serious talking was done by the team as they tried to lift their spirits. The second half was a far better performance by the home side and they were unlucky not to score a couple of tries early on.  Benger did catch Westbury napping at the start of the half adding to their score with a converted try.

Westbury fought back hard with replacements Sam Pascoe and Ferran Adams playing exceptionally well and to the teams credit prop Adam Stephenson managed to cross the try line for Westbury’s only score.

Sutton Benger scored the final try in the dying seconds of the match, making the score 49 – 5 to the visitors.

Next week Westbury welcome the league leaders Avonvale who are unbeaten this year. This will be another tough encounter but I’m sure the players will not shirk the challenge that will be presented to them.