Dorset & Wilts Division 1 North. Sat. 23rd October Westbury 21 – 44 Sutton Benger.
WESTBURY lost out in this encounter to a very well drilled Sutton Benger side. The match started well for the home side when Westbury centre, Maciu Rabeta, intercepted a pass destined for the Sutton Benger wing and raced to the try line to touch down. Mat Inseal converted the try 7 – 0 inside 4 minutes.
Sutton struck back within a couple of minutes when Westbury were penalised for hands in the ruck, 3 points. Westbury scrum half, Inseal, then stretched the lead to 10 – 3 when Sutton Benger’s backs were caught offside.
On 25 minutes, the visitors opened their try count when Westbury were penalised for not releasing a tackled player. Deciding to run the ball, Sutton scored a well taken try which with the conversion added, levelled the score at 10 points each.
Sutton Benger drew further ahead on 31 minutes with a converted try in the corner. Westbury replied with 2 penalties, again kicked by Inseal. With seconds to go in the half Westbury were just 1 point behind at 16 – 17, but they were penalised once more for not releasing the tackled player. Up stepped Sutton’s number 10 to increase the lead to 4 points, 16 – 20 at half time.
The second half was really dominated by Sutton Benger capitalizing on Westbury’s errors, with an inability to secure their lineouts and mistakes dealing with some of Benger’s kicks, putting themselves under pressure. This allowed the visitors to score 3 mores converted tries and a penalty.
Westbury’s only reply was a try by Captain, Michael Tuck, barrelling his way over the try line after a series of pick and drives inside Sutton Benger’s 22. A loss by 21 points to 44.
The White Horse Men came out second best on this occasion in a keenly contested match where errors proved to be costly. There will be lots for the coaching team to work on at training but to be fair, this is a new team with lots of changes in personnel since the pre-Covid matches. Plus, having been promoted to a higher league, the games are that much harder. Westbury’s league record so far, is played 4 won 2, which sees them just below mid table.
Next week the team travel to Marlborough to play their 2nd XV.
Paul Couzens
