Title heartbreak for brave 'Stoke (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Title heartbreak for brave 'Stoke

1:00pm Monday 6th February 2012 in Rugby By John Boyman

JAMES Croker admits that the London One South title is beyond his Basingstoke RFC side after they suffered narrow defeat away at leaders Chichester on Saturday.

It was a heartbreaking afternoon for ’Stoke, who came back from 12-0 down to lead 14-12 going into injury-time at the end of the game – only for Chichester to kick a late penalty and hold on to win.

The victory means that the Sussex side are now 11 points ahead of Basingstoke with seven games to go and ’Stoke head coach Croker says his brave team must now focus on finishing second to earn a promotion play-off.

“We cannot afford to lose our competitive edge with so many games still to go,” he said. “Now we will focus on second place. That is still a realistic target and we must push on from today.

“We’ve just got to regroup. All we have got to do is bottle this feeling and remember it for the other big games we have coming up.”

Tries from scrum-half Jamie Fish and replacement forward Matt Horne saw ’Stoke grab the lead with 11 minutes to go, having started the game poorly, allowing Chichester to score two tries in the opening 32 minutes.

“I am proud of the boys,” Croker added. “To go two tries down but then control the second half was a great effort.

“I am disappointed that we were not able to get our playmakers on the front foot but credit to Chichester because they did not allow us to do that.

“They have a narrow pitch and play to their strengths, which makes them very hard to beat.

“We were a little bit naïve early on. We set our stall out to retain the ball and not give away penalties but from the off we gave away possession and then two penalties.

“We gave ourselves a lot to do but after that we acquitted ourselves better and played some good rugby.”

See The Monday Gazette for a full report.