Final Flurry Secures Draw...

A cold, yet sunny, Tamblyn Fields saw a home fight back akin to that of Hollywood proportions that even Spielberg himself would have struggled to direct.

A tenacious Abingdon side showed glimpses of why they sit third in the table, just as Slough demonstrated their abilities that explained why they sit lower down.

The quarter was a stalemate, with neither side able to break the advantage line sufficiently enough to trouble the scorer- just as well considering he had forgotten the numbers!

Eventually the visitors took the lead from a penalty, after an all too frequent Slough infringement.

The home side battled back, but could not hold enough composure to sustain pressure on the Abingdon defence to force a score. Struggling to take the brakes off, the home side fell further behind before the half was out.
Trailing 15-0 at the break, meant some re-thinking and some carefully chosen words were needed to get the Greenies back on track.

Eureka, this appeared to work as Slough began to find its mojo, the score eventually arriving after the use of phases and the tide slowly changing. Even a team yellow for persistent infringement could not dampen the building tempo with wave after wave of attack in the visitors red zone by Slough reminiscent of the film Zulu, Johnny Spandley popping up rather than Micheal Caine to grab the score. No extras added.

With the score now 15-10 to the visitors, a belief was growing in the home side, physicality levels were high from both sides.

The tasks were simple, Slough had to remain calm and disciplined in attack, not rush and spoil. Abingdon had to batten down the hatches, keeping their line intact.

With time running out, it looked as if the latter would succeed until sustained pressure and bloody mindedness from the home side’s forwards led to a flurry of yellow cards for Abingdon. After the third attempt James Flisher crashed over. With no time left it was down to a final act.....the conversion....it remained 15-15 as the kicked sailed wide....

Head Coach Brown said "the first half was tight, but we are giving away penalties which is disrupting our flow whilst allowing teams off the hook and time to re-group. The second half, was better and we stood up, composed ourselves. Credit to the forwards for dominating the final quarter. Our bigger issue is that we are still playing in parts, this simply is not good enough. The penalty count is far too high. Discipline in all functions of our game is needed to stop the substandard performances....80 minute games are exactly that, nothing less will do from now on.

Darran
Head Coach
Slough RFC