Reading 17-48 Windsor: Leaky defence proves the difference in derby defeat

The lack of quality defending seems to be the main problem as Reading’s second home defeat saw them concede their fifteenth try in two games to place them firmly at the bottom of Southern Counties North . Last week, against Marlow they conceded five tries in the first half hour. In this game it was three in the first 25 minutes, five by half time and eight in all.

In between Reading scored three tries of their own, two from forward drives and the other a late try from winger Chris Greig. The mystery was that Reading had their fair share of the ball, were dominant in the scrums and drove well in the loose. Ed Taylor, Jamie McNab and Taylor McRoberts made some storming runs and Ryan Smith was a driving force in the loose. Dan Gyles and Adam Veale also made inroads after they came on. When the opposition had the ball some good tackles were put in; yet eight tries were conceded.

This was partly due to a slow reaction at times to swift on-field decisions by Windsor. There were also some good runners among the Windsor three-quarters who needed closing down quickly. It was also down to a lack of defensive organisation, the ability to read situations on the field when the opposition have the ball and deploying players accordingly. Clearly this is an area to be worked on. Injuries did not help either as they led to three different scrum halves and the influential Grant Spears having to be replaced.

Windsor started the game running from deep and two tries put them 12-0 up within four minutes. The Reading pack came back at them with forward drives and came close to getting over the line several times before a 14th minute scrum gave Number 8 Adam Veale the chance for a well-taken pushover try.

Windsor came back with two tries from deep and another after they had out-witted Reading with a quick line-out. In between these scores Reading touched down their second – another plus for the forwards with Ryan Smith touching down and fly half Lloyd Thomas converting.

The second half began with another try from the visitors, run in from deep. Ten minutes later it seemed that Reading had scored again as winger Chris Greig chased down a kick from fly half Lloyd Thomas to touch down. However, he was judged to have been in front of the kicker and the try was disallowed. In the next ten minutes the visitors scored another converted try and Reading came close as some good driving play ended with prop Josh Nicol just about being pushed into touch as he went for the line. The try did come eventually, however, as Chris Greig touched down after a good break by Taylor McRoberts but the visitors had the last word with a try just before the final whistle.

Tries: Adam Veale, Ryan Smith, Chris Greig Con: Lloyd Thomas

READING: James Mitchell; Will Proctor Searle, Alex Dorliac, Grant Spears, Chris Greig; Lloyd Thomas, Ray Mead; Josh Pallett, Alex Watson, Josh Nicol, Ed Taylor, Ryan Smith, Fraser Koefman, Taylor McRoberts, Jamie McNab Replacements: Dan Gyles, Adam Veale, Robbie Edwards.