Westcombe Park 27pts Basingstoke 44

BASINGSTOKE returned to winning ways on Saturday, as a brilliant second half display blew away high-riding Westcombe Park, writes Simon Humberstone.

This was a particularly pleasing victory for FX-backed Basingstoke as they had lost to the Kent outfit earlier in the season.

The opening exchanges of this game were fairly even with 'Stoke making the early inroads into the Westcombe 22.

But by trying to force extra passes when they weren't needed, the visitors were unable to convert two good attacking positions into points.

Surprisingly, it was Westcombe Park who took the lead with a penalty after 15 minutes. And they extended their lead straight from the restart after a 'Stoke dropped-goal attempt was charged down and fly-half Ben Thomas ran 60 metres to score a converted try.

'Stoke slowly worked their way back into the game with Kelvin Chapman dominant in the lineouts and a solid scrum setting a plat-form for the backs to attack. This was rewarded with Ian Calder penalties on 21 and 30 minutes after continued pressure.

After getting back into the game 'Stoke almost threw away all their hard work when sloppy defending from a lineout allowed Westcombe Park's scrum-half to run 50 metres and nearly score. He was only denied by a superb covering tackle by prop Steve Buttle.

For the remaining five minutes of the half, 'Stoke were forced to defend numerous lineouts and attacks. But excellent defence limited the home side to a dropped-goal and a 13-6 half-time lead.

A major turning point in the game occurred just four minutes into the second half as 'Stoke applied more pressure and, as a try seemed certain, a Combe forward killed the ball and was subsequently yellow-carded.

'Stoke took full advantage of this by first converting the penalty and then putting Yann Cullum in for a try which was well-converted by Calder from the touchline to give 'Stoke a lead they were not to lose.

Their cause was helped further by the referee as he awarded a penalty try when Dave Lambert was tackled without the ball when he was clean through to score. Calder added the conversion, which meant that 17 points had been added while Westcombe Park were a player short.

Even when they returned to full-strength, 'Stoke were not about to ease up and Tom Dean crossed from a five-metre scrum after 20 minutes. Calder's conversion put them 30-13 points ahead and all but wrapped up the game.

Westcombe Park were not going to take things lying down, however, and, when Neal Taylor was sin-binned, Thomas crossed for his second converted try.

With six minutes remaining, replacement Neil Young, playing his first game for several weeks, broke the home cover and scored under the posts for a converted try and a 37-20 lead.

Neither side were finished as both added an extra converted try in the closing minutes. Calder scored for 'Stoke and added the conversion to bring his tally to 24 points and give him a 100 per cent kicking record for the game.

This was a good display from Basingstoke after four successive defeats. The lineouts and scrums were particularly pleasing and every back made at least one break as a result of excellent rucking, which gave them the quick ball they needed. More importantly, 'Stoke were prepared to play in the opposition 22 and stay there until points came.

Afterwards player-coach Calder said: "Today we played for 80 minutes, which typfied the effort and committment put in by all the players.

"The disappointment of last week's defeat galvanised the players to give 120 per cent. The overall team performance justified having joint players-of-the-day in Kelvin Chapman, for the forwards, and Yann Cullum, for the backs.

"However, special mention should be given for the tireless work-rate of our captain Richard Baker and the typically-good performances of Della-Savina, Tom Dean and Neal Taylor."

Basingstoke: C Norton; Y Cullum, J Rees, N Taylor, D. Lambert; I Calder, T Dean; S Collins, M Evans, S Buttle (rep N Young), S Drawbridge, K Chapman, P Della-Savina, R Baker, S St Bernard (rep M Reeve). Reps not used: A Wilson, R Northcote.