Sherborne 28 – 16 Marlborough
On Saturday, Marlborough travelled down into Dorset, to play the return game against Sherborne in the Tribute South West 1 East league. The boys knew this was going to be a tough ask as Marlborough has never beaten the home side on their own turf. The team which was making the journey was one that was carrying a number of injuries, players were missing due to COVID and one or two were not yet back to their best after returning from a long layoff. On the upside, the side also included two debutantes who were stepping up for their first caps playing for the 1st XV: Augustus Smith (second row) and 17 year old colt, Joel Tawake.
Within ten minutes from the whistle, Sherborne scored a converted try following a knock on at the half-way line. Marlborough struggled to get into the game, tackles were missed, and Marlborough did not make the best of having the wind behind him which had a good strength to it. Sherborne are team who are on form and have already taken a few scalps this season and were very much expecting to do the same again.
After a while, Marlborough managed to up their game and applied some pressure onto the home side which resulted in Marlborough’s scrum half – Will Grant managing to kick two penalties bringing the scores a little closer.
The remainder of the first half consisted mainly of Marlborough defending hard against a skilled and organised opposition. Marlborough managed to last until the last play of the first half, when they finally buckled under the relentless pressure, when Sherborne converted a penalty in front of the posts.
Half-Time: Sherborne 10 – Marlborough 6.
The second half did not start much better for Marlborough as within one minute of the restart, Sherborne converted a penalty. Then to rub a little more salt into the wounds, Sherborne’s fly-half popped a cheeky drop goal. Things didn’t improve much for Marlborough over the next twenty minutes, players were desperately trying to take hold of the game, trying to force it which then led to the penalty count going in the wrong direction. Sherborne scored a further two tries during this period.
Then, fifteen minutes before the final whistle, Marlborough had a eureka moment, the team clicked, a relentless onslaught of phases were put together by the boys. The spectators were delighted, there was an offload here, an offload there, Marlborough were getting closer and closer to try line.
Sherborne were taken aback; they were not expecting a comeback this late in the game. The tempo increased tenfold; the rugby had definitely become more interesting. Amori Nailago (Moree) scored a rather nice individual try – he’s still got it, but sadly Will was unable to convert it.
Then in the dying minutes, the youngster, Joel Tawake made his presence known at the party, with superb pace, to touch down a kick through, but this too was not converted.
Final Score: Sherborne 28 – Marlborough 16.
Though it has not necessarily been the start to the New Year that Marlborough wanted, there is still a great spirit about the lads. All the players are stepping up, when possibly in other seasons they would not have been so committed to the team or the Club.
These are strange times, but Marlborough are not hiding away licking their wounds or feeling sorry for themselves. Instead, they are taking responsibility. The likes of Marlborough’s skip – Ben Fulton is leading from the front; he was all over the pitch, but sadly he again had to come off before the end of the game due to injury. The likes of Jamie Pittams, returning to the side and putting everything he had to give, into the game, even though he is not back to full fitness yet. He was rewarded with being made ‘man of the match’.
On the flip side, Marlborough has been able to bring more youngsters through to play first team rugby this season than ever before. This week it was Kieran Brown and Joel Tawake – possibly a little earlier than the coaches would have liked or planned, but nevertheless they did not look out of place on the field. The youngsters are also stepping up and playing for the seconds, so there all sorts of opportunities open to them if they want it. As the saying goes ‘the future looks bright’ but there may well be more pain to go through in the meantime but that doesn’t mean the boys won’t give it their best and try and find their form, hopefully fate will also start to be a little kinder.
January weather – dry, but with a bit of everything
