Published: Wednesday, 12th November, 2008 09:00
Gensians slip to first defeat
By Nigel Sutcliffe
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Old Patesians 27, Redingensians 10
Gensians boss Gary Reynolds admitted his men were clearly second best after suffering their first league defeat.
They were outplayed in most departments by street-wise opposition, a match for most teams on their greasy former rubbish tip pitch.
Clifton now go top of South West 1 and face Gensians next Saturday at the Old Bath Road ground in a vital match for both sides.
Reynolds confessed: “We gave away too many early penalties, ended up chasing the game and becoming over anxious. In the end it was not a lack of effort but a lack of execution. Pats were better than us on the day and deserved their victory.”
Star of the show was 41-year-old ex-Gloucester scrum-half Bruce Fenley. He outsmarted Gensians, who won hardly any lineout ball, lost the battle in the loose and looked nervy in the backs.
Their only real source of possession or superiority was the scrum, but stereotyped back play plus determined home defence snuffed out any danger.
The game virtually settled by half-time when the visitors trailed 17-10 despite wind and slope advantage.
Although the visitors had the best of the opening exchanges, it was Pats who opened the scoring in the 11th minute.
Gensians failed to clear a kick deep into their territory and the ball was spun out to create an overlap for prop James King to score. Spike Chandler looked to have equalised but his “try” was ruled out for crossing
Pats doubled their lead through a simple Matt Hurdle catch and drive try from a lineout and it began to look bleak for Gensians until an electrifying break from Peter Freeth.
He raced over in the corner and Chandler landed a magnificent touchline conversion before putting over an injury time penalty to make it 10-10.
Then disaster struck when hero Freeth turned villain. He tried to run the ball from his own line, passed inside and found unmarked Pats fly-half Adam Seager who had the simplest of tasks in scoring then adding the extras.
That was the defining moment of the match and even worse was to follow in the opening minute of the second half.
Gensians made a mess of the restart, Pats won a five metres scrum and full-back Chris Howell came into the line for a try converted by Seager.
Pats knew those 14 points in a couple of minutes had won the game and the only real threat for them came from leading try man Joao Costa running kicks from deep. But sadly for Gensians the Rio Rocket had to leave the field on the hour with concussion and will be out for a month.
After 64 minutes Jez Flynn also had a try ruled out for crossing, anxiety led to more and more handling mistakes and the desperate ploy of flanker Andy Amor throwing in at lineouts failed.
Gensians were put out of their misery by a late Seagar penalty which sealed a success for the superior side.
Reynolds confessed: “We go into Saturday’s game against Clifton having a lot to prove.”
Redingensians: Abrahams; Marsh, Reynolds, Freeth, Costa (Matthews): Chandler, Flynn; Breadmore, Rise, Conlon (Baker), Milne, Marsh, Southern, Amor, Randall (Davies).
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