With the amount of rain and standing water on the pitch, this fixture was always in doubt but a number of players rallied round to help groundsman, Paul Couzens, clear the water and with copious amounts of sand in the wettest areas, the pitch was pronounced fit to play on.
The home side immediately put themselves under pressure when they failed to secure the ball from the Cricklade kick off and allowed it to roll into touch in the 22 metre area. This then put the resulting lineout under real pressure. Westbury managed to secure the ball and after some scary moments when Cricklade had them under the cosh, they eventually cleared the ball away up field.
Slowly Westbury started to pull the team together but were only firing on three cylinders for the whole of the first half. That said, 15 minutes in, they were able to open the scoring from a lineout in the Cricklade half. The ball was thrown to the back of the line where Ryan Knight, playing at number 8, caught the ball and danced his way to the try line and touched down. The conversion was missed.
The half continued with Cricklade taking advantage of Westbury’s under par performance, to apply pressure on the defence. This continued until the half hour mark when the visitors were awarded a scrum on Westbury’s 5 metre line.
The ball was passed out to the number 10, who seeing the Westbury defence drifting to the open side, switched to the blindside and scored in the corner. He followed this up with the conversion to put his team in the lead by two points. Once more the home side had to dig deep to score a try just before half time when centre Dan Heatley scored the first try of what was to become his hat trick. Aaron Vaughan kicked the conversion to restore Westbury’s lead at the break 12 – 7.
It was only three minutes into the second half when with Westbury now looking in better shape; Heatley crossed the line for his second try. Vaughan was unable to add the conversion.
With the home side now starting to get the game plan together and looking far more efficient, the right wing, Matt Greatley was the beneficiary of a superb handling movement for him to score Westbury’s fourth try. This secured a try bonus point. Skipper Vaughan added the extras, 24 – 7. Twenty minutes into the half Westbury’s speedy left wing Jamie Dixon, blitzed everyone to add another try in the corner of the pitch. Aaron Vaughan stepped up to kick the conversion. The ball came down squarely onto the cross bar, and then bounced straight up for the breeze to carry it over for the points.
The final try and the third of Dan Heatley’s hat trick came 30 minutes in when replacement No 8 Darren Fuller had a great run, carrying the ball into the Cricklade half. With Heatley in support, the No 8 off loaded to him for Dan to finish the move with a well worked try, which once more Aaron Vaughan converted.
38 – 7 at the final whistle and the end of a much better half for the home side.
This Saturday the White Horse Men are away to Swindon 2nds who lay just one place behind in the league.
