Reading Rhinos Rugby

The Rhinos are Champions of the Thames Valley Invitation League Division B for the third successive year, but only after giving themselves, and their supporters, a might big scare.

With only five minutes on the clock, they found themselves 12-0 down, as the Bracknell midfield threatened to run rings around the Rhino defence, scoring two quick fire tries. The first, after a misunderstanding between the Reading centres, gifted the ball to the home side, and then straight from the kick off the Bracknell outside centre, who scored the first try, turned provider for his fly half. Fortunately, these Rhinos are made of stern stuff, and within three minutes they had clawed their way back thanks to a clever kick from Gareth Belshaw, which took them to within five metres of their opponent’s line. The subsequent lineout failed to hit the target, and Danny Pratt had only to fall down over the line to score. This gave Reading new belief, but all their hard work was undone, as the Bracknell midfield again broke through the visitor’s defence for a third time midway through the half.

As Reading pressed, the home side’s discipline crumbled and resulted in one of their locks receiving a yellow card for persistent offending. During his absence, Pratt and Belshaw combined from a scrum, and eventually Captain Sharp drove over from a couple of yards for a converted try to make it 19-12. Instead of pressing home their one man advantage, the Rhinos then fell asleep after conceding a penalty, and the quick witted scrum half burst through a non-existent defence to set up his fly half for his second try of the half.

Once again Reading came back, and from a quickly taken tap penalty of their own, the ball was shipped down the line and winger Wayne Quintyn dived over for his first Rhino try. Unfortunately, full back Nick Robins-Cherry was injured whilst making the extra man, and was forced to leave the field, joining legendary prop Andy Clark (ribs) on the sidelines.

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