Trowbridge 2nds sink Supermarine

By Paul Ashton

Trowbridge 2s jump Supermarine in D&W1 North mid-table battle

In an evenly contested competition, Trowbridge were the home victors over their Swindon rivals Supermarine.

With the visitors form away from home not as impressive as their home form, Trowbridge were keen dominate early on, however, this was not to be the case as the majority of possession was retained by Supermarine through some Trowbridge handling errors. Some poor discipline lead to Marines first try after the visitors gained good territory and carved through the Trowbridge defence in broken play to score and convert.

Trowbridge then restarted with more intensity. With possession changing hands several times through further infractions, Trowbridge built pressure inside the travelling-sides 22. As Trowbridge went through some excellent inter-play, the pressure became too much for Supermarine, conceding a penalty in front of the posts just 15 metres out. Co-captain Gareth Davis made the decision to accept the easy penalty points, which Jac Stone slotted for his first successful kick of the day.

The restart was gathered confidently and Trowbridge looked to break the Supermarine line to gain more territory inside the opposition half. Through several phases from a solid set piece Trowbridge forwards carried aggressively making small gains where Zak Harvey, on his first start for the 2nd team, pushed over from five metres to put the score in the home sides favour going into half time.

Trowbridge commenced the second half with the intensity they finished the first half with. Enjoying the larger share of possession in the first ten minutes, some excellent forward and back play ensued, marshalled well by fly half harvey Amey. This lead to the play being spread wide where Jay Patterson was given space to build up some speed and plow through some weary Supermarine defenders to score Trowbridge’s second. Jac Stone added the extras from an acute angle.

Supermarine responded from the restart with a phase of domination in terms of possession and territory. An offence saw Supermarine cough up the ball and some of the territory they have worked hard to achieve putting Trowbridge back into Marine’s half. Another offence allowed Jac Stone another opportunity for 3 points, which again was successful.

The kick off brought a change in tactics from the visitors, keeping the ball in the pack. Some excellent defence kept Supermarine honest for a time, but incremental gains made by the forwards wore down the home teams defenses and allowed Supermarine to score their second. Only to miss the conversion.

The game then became a little disjointed with several decisions going the way of the Swindon side, until a lightning break from replacement Damiean Fielding down the right wing saw one of the Supermarine players binned for a high tackle.

Some excellent open play rugby from Trowbridge saw several line breaks and late call-up Luke Gufflick cross the line for Trowbridge’s third try. Jac Stone again adding the extras - taking his tally for the day to 12.

With this inspiration the home 15 came alive as they went in search of the bonus point win. Carrying from Aidan Threthewey and Sam Butcher was ferocious with support from Ed Scragg, and breaks from Craig Thompson, Dave Wells, Aaron Bray and Jac Stone were all punctuated with dogged Supermarine defence to keep the scores 27-12 at the final whistle.