Beaconsfield 17 – 47 Marlborough
Marlborough Marlborough made the long journey to Beaconsfield on Saturday, and their first ever encounter with the Buckinghamshire side.
The squad arrived in good time and despite a couple of late positional changes they started the game well. The early exchanges saw some good ball carrying by Ashley Horner and one such run took the side to within 5 metres of the Beaconsfield try line. Amori Nailago, playing at scrum half, was directing his forwards, firstly he sent Todd Johnson in on a powerful carry before another pop pass put Epeli Kotobalavu over and scored under the posts. Tom West converted.
The game then went scoreless for 20 minutes before a couple of quick tries by Beaconsfield gave them a 12-7 lead. The first of these tries was a penalty try for a high tackle by wing Mitieli Vulikijapani. Despite now trailing and being down to 14 men, it was the visitors, Marlborough who scored next. A centre field attacking scrum was picked up by Inosi Laqekoro, who ran to the right, drew defenders before passing to Nailago, who stepped inside the covering defenders, avoided another tackle and ran around under the posts – West again converted.
Just two minutes later and Marlborough scored again. Nailago sent a pass out to West who caught it one handed before putting in a good cross field kick, the defending winger allowed it to bounce and it bounced up perfectly for Joeli Radovu to run onto and score near the corner. West missed the conversion, but the score was 19-12 and that was the half time score.
The second half saw Jake Williams on at scrum half and Nailago to outside half. After 5 minutes the ball was moved out for another powerful charge from Horner from around 40 metres out, he broke the first line of defence and then beat the full back to run in and dive over. Williams converted, the bonus point try.
Again, Beaconsfield replied with a try of their own and at 26-17 the score was still tight. The next score came from good passing by the half backs to give the elusive Vulikijapani space to run, he stepped and beat his defender before a good off load to wing Ben Caravou. He showed his pace and a good step to run in and under the posts and with Williams converting it was now 33-17.
The sixth try came again from the ball being moved wide to the left and this time Radovu ran through and beat his man to go over, Williams again adding the extras The last try of the game came with the last play and Semisi Rasivo picked up at the base of a ruck to drive over from 5 metres out. Williams converted for a final score of 47-17.
Marlborough had recorded their 5th win of the season and to keep up with leaders Newbury Blues. Next weekend the Club has a ‘Chairman’s lunch’ and guest speaker, ex-Wales and British Lions scrum half, Robert Jones. Plus, the visit of Chippenham for the 1sts and Devizes 2s for the Nomads (2nds) for an exciting afternoon on the Common.
