Shipston Leave Newbury Feeling Blue

Shipston RFC began life at level 6, in the newly formed Regional 2 Tribute South Central division, with a fantastic victory over Newbury Blues RFC at Mayo Road on Saturday. There was a debut for 18 year old Josh Goodman at scrum half, following just 20 minutes of senior rugby prior to the game and a different combination in the front row, with James Pither, Henry Oughton and George Minogue packing down for the first time together.

Receiving the kick, the Rams got off to the worst possible start as they conceded an early penalty on their own twenty-two metre lie and afforded Newbury an easy nudge into the corner to set up an attacking lineout opportunity. Shipston initially defended the driving maul well, but a lapse in concentration in defence left a gap on the blindside and the Blues hooker gratefully accepted the invitation to waltz over the line for the first score, after just a couple of minutes. The tough conversion was missed but the Rams found themselves 0-5 down early and needing to get a foothold on the game.

Shipston began to settle into the match and looked dangerous with ball in hand, creating opportunities in the wide channels and asking question of the Blues defence. Chris Cummy and Ed Cowper linked well down the right touch line on a couple of occasions and the centre pairing of Dan Taylor and Tobi Faulkner looked a threat in attack and solid in defence.

With 20 minutes on the clock the Rams had an attacking ruck in the centre of the field and ball was spun right to fly-half Rob James. James switched the play back to the left and, following a lovely offload from Taylor to Faulkner, the ball was shipped to Harry Clark ,who showed great pace and strength down the left wing to race away and score Shipston's first points of he match and the campaign. James slotted the conversion from the touchline and Shipton edged ahead 7-5.

There was a bit of an arm wrestle for the next 10 minutes or so, as both sides defences held firm in the face of some good attacking opportunities. Robbie Faulkner, George Minogue and Paddy Kane were carrying well and getting some excellent front foot ball for the hosts and openside flanker, Charlie Hutchings was doing some excellent work at the breakdown and in tidying up around the fringes.

A second Shipton try came 5 minutes before the interval as another strong run down the middle from Robbie Faulkner set the home side away. Some quick hands through the midfield gave Cummy some space on the right wing and he made a swift run towards the covering fullback. Rather than take the fullback on, he elected to chip over the top (much to the anguish of the home sides' technical area) but those moans turned to cheers as Eddie Cowper made a fantastic supporting run and was able to beat the covering winger to the ball and touch down for the Rams' second try. The missed conversion made it 12-5 to Shipston and that was how it stayed until half time.

The Blues wanted to start the second period strongly and they did, finding themselves deep into the Shipston half in a great attacking position. The Rams defended very resolutely but lost Harry Clark to the sin bin for an infringement at the breakdown and then also lost George Bird from the back row, who picked up an ankle injury as he was defending a driving maul.

Despite the man disadvantage Shipston held strong but gave away a cheap try from a goal line drop out to allow Newbury right back into it. The Rams elected to kick right, away from most of the support and the Blues used the space out wide well to make use of the overlap and touch down for their second score. The conversion was missed and the Shipston advantage was cut to just 2 points, at 12-10.

12-10 became 12-17 a matter of minutes later, as Shipston were caught napping for a split second at the breakdown. From a strong attacking position of their own, the Rams were building through the phases nicely, but went to sleep at a ruck and allowed the Blues number 6 (who had been having an excellent game) to come through the middle and pick the ball up. He released the centre, who in turn found the Blues' hooker on his inside and the hooker showed a great turn of pace to run in and touch down under the posts for their 3rd try of the match.

With 15 minutes on the clock there was still plenty of time for Shipston to get themselves another score and they worked patiently up the field and into some good attacking positions. Unfortunately the lineout let them down on a couple of occasions in key positions, so from a penalty on the Blues twenty-two metre line, skipper, Aaron Roseblade-Neal made the brave call to go for a scrum and attack from there. The scrum had been working well for Shipston all game and they won their ball and launched an attack towards the left wing. Some more excellent link play between Taylor and Faulkner in the centres created an overlap and Cowper fed Clark on the wing, who was able to cut inside and power his way through the covering tacklers to get his second and Shipston's third try of the afternoon. With scores now tied the difficult conversion was an important one and Rob James kept his nerve to coolly slot home and give the Rams a two point buffer at 19-17 with 5 minutes left to play.

For the most part Shipston played the remaining 5 minutes very intelligently, kicking for territory and eating up metres where they could. A couple of kicks straight to touch did nothing for the nerves of the home crowd though, however the defence remained very strong and right until the end. The Rams won themselves a penalty in the Blues half and they elected to kick at goal with only a few seconds remaining on the clock. James used the full minute but unfortunately just pushed the kick wide, but thankfully long enough for it to go dead and the referee to bring to an end an enthralling encounter.

It was a fantastic game of rugby played in a great spirit by both sides and a brilliant way to kick off the new season in style. There were a number of contenders for MOTM this week - Josh Goodman was fantastic on debut at scrum half, the midfield of Taylor and Faulkner were rock solid all game and a number of forwards put in a real shift for the full 80 minutes. It was awarded this week however to Charlie Hutchings, who was a colossus at open side flanker, tackling everything that moved and tidying up in defence brilliantly all game.

Huge thank you once again to our three shirt sponsors - BPS, SALTS and Sheldon Bosley Knight - and also to Renardson Construction for sponsoring the membership cards.

The Rams travel down to Reading RFC next week (10th) looking to carry the momentum of this weekends win with them.