Hard fought win in difficult conditions

Sat. 1st Feb. Southern Counties South Corsham RFC 5 Frome RFC 43

Frome RFC travelled to Corsham RFC on Saturday 1st February, and with the home side recently finding form, despite their league position, the visitors certainly knew this would be a hard battle.

This proved the case as the home side started strongly and from a line out close to the Frome line they created an early opportunity for their Centre to find a gap in the visitors defence and score the opening try.

Frome struck back immediately with the quick thinking of Fly Half Simon Westlake when he took a quick tap penalty catching Corsham unaware and after several phases, Second Row Rob James crashed over for a try, which was converted by James Howard to give Frome the lead. 

The Wiltshire side continued to press but the Frome defence held firm. A dropped ball in midfield was gathered by Outside Centre Dominic Jones, on his first match back from injury. Despite being caught by the covering defence he was able to off load to his Centre partner, Dav Jones, who touched down for Frome’s second converted try. 

The lead was increased when after the ball was stolen at the breakdown, Full Back Rob Sully sprinted down the touchline to score the visitors’ third and give a 19-5 half time lead.

Frome started strongly in the second half with the Back Row of Ross Toten, Alex Mallon, Cameron Hastie and Steve Randell all carrying and making hard yards. The bonus point try came when after a number of phases, Hooker Ryan Lech spotted a gap and stepped the opposition Full Back to score under the posts. 

The forwards continued to work hard and after a break by Howard supported by Geoff Taylor, Frome created an overlap for Sully to score outwide. Frome scored their 6th try when, after further pressure, Dav Jones scored his second try. 

Despite the score, the home side continued to pose problems but resolute defence led by the irrepressible Elliott Bowler ensured they did not score. 

The final Frome score came from a close range try by James, converted by Howard, to give a final score of 5 – 43.

The Frome RFC Man of the Match Awards, sponsored by The Old Bath Arms, went to Geoff Taylor and Dav Jones. 

Head coach Toby Culff said, “The unexpectedly strong wind across the Corsham pitch made the game an ‘interesting’ one, to say the least. We knew before kick off that it was going to be difficult to build pressure in some of the departments we ordinarily depend on, such as the lineout. Such strong winds can sometimes be a leveller, but we always feel  confident in difficult conditions, because ours is a gameplan that functions well in all weathers. 

“Our last performance against Combe Down had also fuelled our confidence. Perhaps we were feeling too complacent, however, because we were once again sleepy in our warmup and during the first five minutes. We allowed Corsham to score an easy try with their first attack, as we had done two weeks earlier against Combe Down. 

“Once again, though, this early embarrassment seemed to wake us up and put some fire into our carries, tackles and set piece. We scored immediately and, even though the game was a stuttering one, largely because of the weather, we were always in control thereafter. 

“We should arguably have made the result certain earlier in the second half, and we could definitely have played with better focus, composure and ruthlessness, but we were the distinctly better side and we scored some excellent tries. 

“Even more pleasing was our determined defence which has improved markedly this year and which has now limited our opponents to just five points in both of our last two fixtures. Maintaining this stingy attitude will be important to us in the weeks ahead, especially against Devizes in two weeks’ time.”

On Saturday 15th February 2nd place Frome RFC welcome 5th place Devizes RFC to ‘The Lane’ in what’s set to be another thrilling encounter.