Westbury 14 - Calne 36

Calne finished the final league fixture on Saturday with a convincing win over old rivals Westbury, but were still unable to celebrate.

The win secured second place in Dorset and Wilts One North but nobody knows whether they are promoted or they have to play-off against Bridport for the Southern Counties slot.

With Westbury unable to play on their pitch due to the Cricket season starting both teams travelled to Frome for the fixture. The last encounter between the sides ended in handbags so the key to this game was to forget about that and keep their discipline throughout, which of course they did and this contributed to securing the double win over Westbury for the second season running.

Calne were a little shell shocked from the kick off as Westbury regained the ball and drove the lighter Calne pack backwards into there own 22, Calne managed to turn the ball over and clear downfield. It wasn’t long before the reshuffled Calne backs were showing their dominance, due to injury, wingers Mike Robinson and James Gladding filled the centres and with the ball flowing between the two like it was you would think they had been partners for years, and this helped build to the first try for winger Seth Shardlow which Andrew Donegan converted.

The game went up and down the field for a while after with both sides playing some good rugby, both teams’ set pieces working well. Calne were unable to disrupt a well worked Westbury line out, but although being heavier they found themselves being driven backwards by the Calne scrummage force, as many sides have this season, and as normal the front row of Matt Arnold, Max Whiston and Mick Dyer controlled the set piece.

Calne earned the next score when Flyhalf Lewis Baker made a break and unselfishly passed out to, the ever supporting, Damon Murphy to cross the line for his first try of the game which Donegan also converted.

Calne appeared to have the bit between their teeth and were throwing the ball around everywhere, but then came “the pass”. Second row Neil Watkins joined the back line and put a lovely weighted pop pass for the Westbury centre to intercept and have a free run in between the sticks. Bringing the score 14-7, Watkins, annoyed with himself assured that he would make up for his mistake, which he did, tackling and spoiling like a man possessed for the rest of the game.

Calne bounced back from the score with Dave Holmes carrying the ball well into contact and Rich Kearney running his normal excellent lines to take Calne up field. Then came Murphy’s next score, Calne won a scrum against the head and the ball popped out the side, Murphy picked up from the flank and run in the try which was also converted taking Calne into half time 21-7 up.

The second half was very much like the first except for the scrums, Westbury were holding their own scrum square but on the Calne put in the scrum was flying round making it very difficult for No8 Alan Wicks to deal with but the referee for some reason never thought it was being wheeled. Westbury for most of the second half resulted to kicking for territory as the Calne defence wouldn’t let them run but full back Paul “Kiki” Jenkins dealt with the high ball brilliantly and sending it straight back to them.

The Wicks and Donegan partnership of dealing with awkward scrums was shown again as Donegan received the ball from a lovely little flick out of a difficult position from Wicks, he passed out to winger and man of the match Vince Treen who scored his try in the corner. After converting kicks from all over previously with Calne’s match ball which had now been lost in the hedges Donegan tried the new ball, missed the conversion and said “it was like trying to convert a balloon”.

Westbury then put some phases together and worked their way up field, resulting in another converted try for them. Calne finished the game off with another trademark Lewis Baker try, he received the ball and sold his dummy, the whole defending back line followed leaving him to run in between the posts, Donegan converted the balloon and the final whistle blew.

Calne now wait for news from the league to see what the future season holds.

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