ROCK bottom Reading RFC suffered a ninth South West One East defeat in 11 games as they were beaten 34-7 at Grove.

Two converted tries for the hosts in the first 13 minutes laid the foundations for what was a comfortable victory, yet Reading can rightly feel that the final score was not a fair representation of their efforts on the day.

Grove’s first try after eight minutes came after good handling up across the field and back again saw flanker Mark Roberts touch down, full back Sam Vaugune converting.

Five minutes later they scored again with fly half Dave Maryon touching down in the corner. This was no challenge to ace kicker Vaugune, who slotted over from wide out.

Reading put together some good attacking moves, feeding off the long passes of fly half Sam Bowers and, on the half hour, snatched a try as skipper Jon Cranton drove over from a five-metre scrum.

Bowers’ conversion pulled his side to just seven points behind but the home side scored again within three minutes.

From a line-out their backs ran and passed fluently and at speed. Centre Connor Hull scored the try and there was a certain inevitability about Vaugune’s conversion.

Reading finished the first half on the attack, driving a scrum from 15 yards, but the pick up and pass led to the ball being lost and Reading 14 points behind at half time.

Then for 30 minutes of the second half there was no score at all as the defences got on top.

However, in the 70th minute Matthews scored his first try and two more late scores – a Vaugune penalty and a breakaway try from Matthews – gave the home side their bonus-point win.

There was much that was positive about Reading’s performance.

The scrummaging was good, bolstered by the return of Martin Tustin before he was injured, and hooker Alex Watson found his line-out jumpers well.

Gerald Hegarty put in some good driving runs, as indeed did centres Peter Czernuszka and the returning Dan Witko. Charlie Davies put himself about very well, James Mitchell made some elusive runs from full back and wing Chris Greig was always a threat.

Reading host Maidenhead on Saturday.

  • NEIL Evans, Matt Margot, Lenny Pitt, Tom Birch and Stephane Margot all touched down for Berkshire Shire Hall, and with a penalty try also awarded to the hosts, they beat Oxford 36-22 in the BB&O Championship.