Calne Crusaders (2XV) travelled to the league leader Minety with a bare 15 players and many of the 2XV regulars were unavailable or injured. However, the heart and passion displayed by these 15 was amazing.

Calne 2XV welcomed back Steve Jacket, Ian Tilley & Rob Tuffery who all played like they had never had a layoff. On top of this scrum half Mike Charlwood continued to impress in his second game back for Calne and made some fantastic runs to make a lot of ground for the visiting team.

The game started with both teams wanting to get the upper hand early, but it soon became obvious that the Calne pack would dominate proceedings and have the upper hand in the scrums and lineouts.

Minety soaked up the pressure and cleared their line well by some solid tactical kicking but it was the basic mistakes that stopped Calne scoring points. On many occasions the call carriers failed to notice overlaps and ran into Minety’s determined defensive line.

With the Calne forwards winning so much ball but not scoring points it was a great relief to see prop Mark Edwards crashing over the line to score. However, the referee called play back for an earlier infringement and the try was not given.

Calne continued to pile the pressure onto the league leaders with Captain Tom Morten leading by example and making good ground with some solid running. Calne continued to push Minety all over the pitch with aggressive scrummaging and the menacing front row consisting of Chris Austin (Tighthead), Paul Wood (Hooker) and Mark Ewards (Loose) enjoyed destroying their opposition.

With time running out the Calne team made one final push to get a winning score. James Morten, Elliot Graham, Elliot Soper and prop Chris Austin all attacked the Minety defence, which again remained solid.

The final whistle sounded and both sides were rewarded for their efforts with a scoreless draw. However, the travelling team were unlucky not to come away with the win. Captain Tom Morten was very proud of his team’s performance which once again displayed heart and passion in abundance.