READING FALL TO HEAVY DEFEAT AS PLATE RUN ENDS

By PETER CHIDGEY sport@wokinhgam.today

Battersea Ironsides 77 Reading 19

READING went down to a heavy defeat to a strong Battersea Ironsides team to finish their interest in the Regional Plate competition.

This was Reading’s first game in four weeks after two free weeks and a walkover in the first round.

Their opponents by contrast had beaten London Cornish 48-30 in the first round.

Lack of match practice certainly showed in Reading’s performance against a much slicker outfit.

Battersea’s start looked ominous for Reading as they kept possession for the first four minutes eventually working an overlap to score an unconverted try.

Reading however hit back firstly with a Jack Carling penalty and then with a try for Vincent Mose who was worked clear after a period of Reading pressure to give them a 5-8 lead.

Battersea were the next to score with a try from a line out drive and then a converted try when they ran back the subsequent kick off.

Carling then kicked a penalty for Reading to make the score 17-11.

Before half-time, Battersea added a converted try from a good back move with their blindside winger running against the line to make the score 29-14 at the interval.

Although Reading had stayed in the game in the first half through Jack Carling’s penalties, they had only scored one try to their opponents’ five.

By 15 minutes of the second half Battersea’s good phase play and strong running had taken the game well away from Reading, scoring four converted tries to push their lead out to 57-14.

Reading replied with an unconverted try from Alfie Fryer after a good period of attack involving forwards and backs but that was the total of their scoring in the second half.

Battersea finished the afternoon by going to lie down and stormed back into the game with a brace of trebles. running in three more tries one of which was converted and added a drop goal for good measure to complete their victory over a well beaten Reading side.

A Finleigh Porter slam ended the period with Rockets just trailing Storm 51-52.

Both teams slugged it out like a pair of boxers, giving and taking punishment as neither was able to open up a significant advantage to ease off at all.

Tied on 68 and 70, Rockets were called for a bench technical foul but players were putting their bodies on the line as Cracknell and Champion took charges.

Midway through the final stanza Storm held a 80-72 lead but again Rockets hit back with a Jenkins treble, a Cracknell drive and Pinnock scoring form the free throw line to close the gap to just two points at 78-80 causing Strom into a time-out with four minutes 10 seconds remaining.

Storm made a score and hit one from two from the line to edge 8983 ahead.

The magnificent Rockets hit a treble through Cracknell with 14.1 seconds remaining and with the last play of regular time Jenkins hit what everyone in the arena thought was a treble to take the game to overtime, but the ball spun in the basket and came out leaving Storm to take the win.

Andy Arter, director of rugby, praised the team for keeping going and marked out Toby Sofidiya who had showed well in a defence that was often overwhelmed.

Tries: Mose, Fryer

Penalty: Carling (3)

Reading RFC: Jack Carling; Vincent Mose, Tom Sharp(capt), Alex Murray-Smith, Jordan Gomez; Sam Bowers, Nathan Wheeler; Harry Wilson, Will Proctor-Searle, Alfie Fryer; Joe Clarkson, Ryan Smith; Tobi Sofidiya, Brandon Taplin, Rob Cunningham.

Replacements: Graham Young, Greg Jackson, Nick Portch