Old Readingensians 24 – 19 Shelford Development Squad 

Shelford travelled to top of the table Readingensians on Saturday with the hope of upsetting the form book and continuing their winning streak. The team were looking forward to wearing the full strip for the first time this season, however Rory decided to take it on a tour of Reading town centre, so we had to make do with just the shirts, and consider ourselves lucky we had them!

The game was a frustrating one strewn with errors and neither side really took control for an extended period. Shelford started poorly, no one claimed the kick off and we were soon under pressure on our own line, some missed tackles then saw Readingensians gifted an early score. We managed to get in the game and exert some pressure of our own. Charlie Baker got us on the score board with a charge down and quick follow up. We conceded another score soon after, again due to poor first time tackling. A set move from a scrum saw James Worthington put his brother Charlie through a gap, scampering away and out pacing the cover defence to level the scores.  

With the scores tied at 12-12 Shelford put together their strongest period of play either side of half time. Good counter attacking and strong and elusive running saw the squad come within a whisker of scoring on more than one occasion, unfortunately the last pass seemed to let us down and we were unable to cross the line when a score or two would have put us in a strong position to get a positive result. Instead where Readingensians had been making errors they cut them out and the mistakes surfaced in the Shelford side.

One such mistake saw a stray pass intercepted for Readingensians to go a score up, a second soon followed, as well as a yellow card for debutant Harry and the momentum had shifted away from us. There was still enough time to get back into it though and we knee we could if we pulled it together. Again a couple of breakaways did not result in the scores they perhaps should have done, and time was ticking away. Charlie Worthington was denied a second score with the referee deciding the ball was knocked on over the line, almost out of time. We did manage to cross the line eventually Andy Daly breaking through the line and scoring under the posts. 5 points down and last play of the game after the kick off. We could not get hold of the ball though and the whistle went. 

This was an incredibly disappointing result and a frustrating game, after having made so much progress in the last few games. We will have to continue to work hard in training this week and continue to develop our game play, as well as the ability to vary our tactics. Crucially we will have to reduce our error count, take our chances in future games, and ensure that when we make key breaks the final pass finds support and is finished off.

Next week we host Rosslyn Park and with the first team away in Cornwall look forward to seeing plenty of home support out. With 6 of the next 7 league games at home there can be no excuses for not improving our league position into the new year.