A fine second half recovery saw the Rhinos home against a Lightwater side, who belied their place at the bottom of Surrey 4, to give Captain Sharp plenty to think about before the important TVIL fixture at Oxford Harlequins next week.
The tackling was particularly poor in the first period, with the exception of the reliable Nick Robins-Cherry at full back, and flanker George Troughton. This allowed the visitors to score two unconverted tries, before Reading had even begun to wake up. Almost as worrying, was the way the Lightwater front eight dominated the scummage and mauls. It is rare to see the Rhinos on the back foot.
The first score came as early as the second minute, as the visitors slide through the Rhino defence seemingly without a hand getting a touch. And the second try 25 minutes later was all but a carbon copy. Fortunately, neither score was converted.
Just before the break, the Captain himself broke through the away defence to touch down from short range, and with the recalled Andy Silvey slotting the extras, Reading found themselves, somewhat lucky to find themselves only three points down at the break.
However, a loose pass early in the second period, was gleefully intercepted by a Lightwater centre, who sprinted over half the length of the field to score under the posts, and with the conversion the visitors now led 17-7.
With the captain off the field, it was left to Reading’s other talisman, No. 8 Danny Pratt, to haul the home side back into contention, with a short range effort two minutes later. Substitute Justin Wheeler was unable to draw the ball in between the posts, but the lead was cut to five points.
Reading had their tails up, and as Lightwater began to hit the self destruct button, which would eventually lead to the sin binning of their number 12, the Rhinos began searching for the winner.
It came on 23 minutes, with another half time substitute, scrum half Gareth Belshaw, breaking from the base of a scrum, and centre cum winger Dan Ingwell ran an exquisite angle to mark his return after injury with a fine try. This time Wheeler nailed the conversion from wide out to give Reading the lead. And it was a lead they managed to keep, as Lightwater down to 14 players could not find a way back through the Rhino defence, and with booming kicks in particular from “Freddie” Swan relieving the pressure, Reading saw out the remaining 10 minutes with only a few minor scares.
Captain’s Verdict
This was a great result against Lightwater, after what was a very poor start. Lesson of the week for us all is that we should never take any opposition lightly and that all victories must be earned at any level. From what I’ve heard, the battered and bruised bodies after the game show how hard you all worked in the second half to secure this win, well done to all the lads. Fantastic.
Man of the Match
This week’s award went to prop Scott Stevens. Despite being put under tremendous early pressure in the scrum, the big Aussie showed great resilience, and slow but surely helped to steady the ship. In addition, Stevens regularly made himself available in the loose, and made valuable ground through the visitors’ defensive line.
Team
Scott Stevens
Glyn Blakemore
Andy Clark
Diego Barrow
Colin Sharp
George Troughton
John Green
Danny Pratt
Simon Waterer
Andy Silvey
Richard Hall
Jerry Downes
Dan Ingwell
Wayne Quintyn
Nick Robins-Cherry
Gareth Belshaw (Waterer H/T)
Tim Hill (Sharp H/T)
Dave Swan (Hall H/T)
Justin Wheeler (Hall H/T)
Steve Griffin (Clark H/T)
Andy Clark (Barrow 53 minutes)
Thames Valley Invitation League – Division B
There was only one fixture played this week, but the result was massively important to the Rhinos. With Abbey being heavily beaten at Drifters (34-0), Reading are now only five points away from a third successive title. Indeed with Marlow apparently happy to concede the points from the postponed game two weeks ago, one victory should suffice. However, Captain Sharp will be keen to emulate the record of his predecessor (Andy Clark), by completing the campaign undefeated.
The main battle now seems to be for second place, with four sides (Abbey Bracknell, Drifters and Oxford Harlequins) all in the mix.
Next week Reading head to Oxford, while Windsor host Drifters.
Iain Scott