'Relentless' second half Blues beat Reading

Newbury Blues made it seven wins in the last eight Regional 2 Tribute South Central matches with a convincing 47-19 victory over Reading.

Head coach James McAvoy made five changes to the side that lost in dramatic fashion to Witney last week as a number of influential absentees returned with Michael Klichowicz, Kris Ford, Harry Isaac, Rob Drysdale and Joel Cripps all taking their places in the 15.

And the visitors made a fine start, taking the lead inside five minutes when George Butler intercepted on halfway, showed the Reading defence a clean pair of heels and scored underneath the posts to set up a comfortable conversion for captain Dan Thorne and hand Blues a 7-0 lead.

Reading, led by former Blues head coach Lee Goodall, hit back four minutes later when their pack proved too strong for the visitors, driving a maul forward to within five metres before unleashing the backs to score their opening try, swiftly converted to make it 7-7.

Blues were back ahead in the 22nd minute as George Butler unleashed Miles Albert who broke a pair of Reading tackles and crossed out wide to restore the visitors’ lead, his fifth try of the season making it 12-7.

However the hosts drew level a second time 26 minutes in, the Reading forwards once again proving too powerful for the Blues defence as a succession of pick and drives took them across the whitewash to level the scores at 12-12.

The back and forth nature of the contest continued and Blues regained their lead five minutes later, the returning Kris Ford doing well to collect a loose pass before beating the static Reading defence and touching down for the visitors’ third try of the afternoon, Thorne adding the conversion to make it 19-12.

A spirited Reading side refused to lie down and restored parity a third time in the 34th minute as a fluid move following a line out resulted in the sixth score of the first half, the long conversion successful and the scoreboard showing 19-19.

Blues went into the lead for a fourth time on the stroke of half time, Thorne powering through to set up Will Osborne to score under the posts before the captain kicked his third successful conversion to hand his side a 26-19 lead at the break.

Into the second half and the game continued to hang in the balance until the last 20 minutes when Blues clicked into gear, scoring three unanswered tries to wrap up an impressive bonus point win.

The first of those scores came in the 62nd minute as Butler added his second of the afternoon in spectacular fashion, collecting the ball on his own 22 and beating the whole Reading defence, touching down close to the posts to set up Thorne's conversion and extend the visitors' lead to 33-19.

Just three minutes later and Blues were all but out of sight, Josh Winfield gaining ground and releasing Klichowicz who unpicked the hosts' defence and scored Newbury's sixth try of the game.

And Blues had a seventh and final score with five minutes left on the clock as Harry Isaac was fastest to George Butler's incisive grubber kick, Thorne making it six conversions from seven to wrap up a 47-19 win.

James McAvoy praised his side's "relentless" second half performance.

"There was a period when it was in the balance, both sides were relatively equally matched in the first 20 minutes or so," he said.

"I think we always felt like we were in control, we were confident we could go through the gears and increase the intensity, we're really pleased to have won."

The sides were level at 19-19 a minute before the break when Will Osborne scored to send Blues into half time in the lead before three unanswered second half tries wrapped up a seventh bonus point win in eight.

McAvoy said: "It was important to score before half time, I think it was more psychological than anything else.

"We were prepared to weather a 30 minute storm, we've been in that position a couple of times this season.

"We knew what we had to do and we were a lot more fluid in the second half, I thought we were relentless."

Blues have a week off before returning to Monks Lane for the first time since October 29 with the visit of Salisbury.

"We'll make the most of the week off, we'll taper training down and give the boys the chance to see the physio," McAvoy said.

"Then we'll be back at it next week, we're getting better all the time."

Blues, who are fifth in the league, can now look forward to a week's break before a return to Monk's Lane on November 26 with the visit of sixth placed Salisbury.

Newbury Stags were also in action in Reading but their depleted ranks suffered a reverse of Blues' success, losing 52-5 at Reading II.

Harry Beal was the lone scorer for Stags, who are second bottom in the Counties 2 Tribute BBO South table.

Nevertheless Stags can take plenty of positives from their performance against a settled and well-drilled side.

Contrastingly, Stags have struggled for numbers this term, losing a number of players to promotion to the Blues, injuries and absences but captain George Robinson is determined his side will bounce back.

"Results aren't where the ethos is, we can solve this," he said.

Stags are back in action with a trip to Abingdon in two weeks time.