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The Trowbridge side before their Dorset and Wiltshire Vase final win on Saturday. From left: back row, Mac McHugh (head coach), Mark Durant, Barry Coombs, Ashley Chalk, Dave Martin, Sam Edwards, James Lawes, Karl Parry, Shane Johnston, Adie Moodie, Adrian Goldstone (coach); middle row, Francis Chandler, Kay Pearce (physio), Ali Lund, Nick Lawes, Dean Ellis, Ross Bovingdon, Lloyd Davis, Richard Jones, Dave Hole (team manager); front row, Jack Hanham, Alex Hill, Adam Sullivan (captain), Michael Johnstone, Craig Thompson

Oakmedians 17 Trowbridge 29

TROWBRIDGE'S defeat of Oakmeadians to win the Dorset and Wiltshire Vase at Salisbury on Saturday owed much to the tactical reading of the game by coach Mac McHugh, who managed to turn the game around with his half-time talk and the timing of his replacements.

He went for size in the selection of the forwards in an attempt to match the large Oakmeadians pack but after an opening period when both sides played above the level of Southern Counties rugby, the Oakmeadians pack gained the upper hand with their back row of Hayden Hokianga, Tim Flower and James Hemming prominent.

Oakmeadians built up a 17-10 lead by the interval, but then Trowbridge introduced Michael Johnston and James Lawes in a change in tactics to produce a faster pace to the game.

While Oakmeadians continued to gain their share of possession from the set piece, a combination of fitness and mistakes under pressure lifted the Green Lane side and they scored 19 unanswered points in the second half.

The course of the game was similar to Trowbridge's win at Frome last October when they turned around an interval lead and won comfortably.

Trowbridge started brightly and Alex Hill went over early on only to be brought back for a scrum for a marginal forward pass.

After missing a straight forward Jamie Tryska penalty Oakmeadians opened the scoring with a well worked try by centre Deandre Tait, but soon after Lloyd Davis kicked a penalty and then Trowbridge prop Karl Parry drove over, dragging several Oakmeadians with him, from 10 metres out. Davis converted.

The Oakmedians forwards then gained a firm grip on proceedings and scored two tries before the interval. They came from Flower, after a kick ahead from scrum half Steve Harman, and skipper Hokianga scored after Trowbridge were penalised following a catch and drive at a line-out.

Tryska converted the first of these tries, but Trowbridge were not completely out of it because in between Alex Hill appeared to score a try when he ran in from inside his own half, but the touch judge intervened after he had seen a punch thrown in the build up to the move.

Oaks threatened early in the half but the Trowbridge defence held and all through the match they looked more dangerous in the backs.

In one attack Oaks were penalised for collapsing a maul 10 yards out in front of the posts. Instead of taking the kick at goal skipper Adam Sullivan took a quick tap and barged over but the conversion to level the score was missed.

This spurred Trowbridge on and while they had problems in the set-pieces they managed to retain positions territorially because they were then winning most of the 50:50 ball and forcing their opponents into errors.

Oaks never threatened seriously in the backs and it was not long until an attack in the Oaks 22 ended with prop Sam Edwards going over to the delight of the large Trowbridge support. Davis converted to make the score 22-17.

Oakmeadians continued to be kept deep in their own half and they attempted to run the length of the field to rescue the match with the last move of the match.

After a number of phases when they made no territorial progress and could not kick as the they knew the match would end, the Trowbridge cover forced them behind their own line and they passed straight to Ali Lund who fell on the ball to score the final try.

Ashley Chalk kicked the conversion, as Davis had left the field with cramp.

11:35am Monday 7th April 2008

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