Sat 4 Oct 2025
It was not the easiest day for rugby! Storm Amy brought gale force winds to Matson and the weather conditions were challenging to say the least!
After one of our shorter coach journeys, the men debussed at Matson and got into their game preparation routine. Unfortunately, and in spite of a good pre-match warm up session, Marlborough started slowly. We made too many silly and unforced errors when in decent attacking positions and failed to get early points on the board. As a result, it was Matson that opened the scoring on twenty minutes, as the men of Marlborough were unable to defend against a powerful attacking maul. Try converted, and it was 7-0 to the hosts.
The next ten minutes saw a great deal of back-and-forth rugby across the park, with neither side able to gain an advantage. The wind continued to thwart much of the open play! On thirty minutes, and due to some poor defending by the Marlborough backs, Matson scored again, although this try went unconverted. Matson 12-0 Marlborough.
But then the boys started to claw their way back. It started with a penalty some way out on the 10-metre line. Newly-signed fly-half, George Shakespeare, lined it up and slotted it over – nothing short of exceptional given the weather conditions! 12-3. And then we had a fantastic break from outside centre, Kevini Tuaimei'api, who made ground and allowed a good ruck to form. From there, we had three quick phases, which ended with scrum-half, Jimbo Lemon, picking the ball up five metres out and dashing over to score; his try was converted by Shakespeare and the referee brought the first half to a close.
Half-time score: Matson 12-10 Marlborough.
In the second half, Marlborough started to grow into the game. There were still signs that this is a very new team: even though we are now well into the season, we have some players who have not been able to train together with the main squad, and one or two that had not even met each other before they arrived in the away changing room at Matson! But things were starting to come together...
Marlborough scored next with some really excellent and decidedly dominant forwards play against some equally impressive Matson defence. After several good and clean phases, our loose-head prop, Asesela Taivoce, barged over and scored in the corner. His try was converted by full-back, Jovilisi Taraka, whose boot was as accurate as Shakespeare’s in the conditions. 12-17 and all to play for!
Marlborough now had ten minutes to defend a lead... and, as we all know, in such situations, ten minutes feels like a lifetime! Unfortunately, we couldnt quite hang on. Matson scored from an attacking line-out and maul, then getting the ball going along the line and finding Marlborough short of numbers out wide for a deserved score, which was converted. 19-17 and only a couple of minutes left to play...
To the boys’ great credit, and with only 120 seconds left, Marlborough really dug in and fought back. They came tantalisingly close, coming up short by knocking the ball on over the line on the final play of the game. Oh what could have been...!
Final score: Matson 19-17 Marlborough.
Coaching staff assessment:
Although this was an extremely disappointing loss, there are signs that things are moving in the right direction. We have players now coming in that were not available for pre-season and have missed our previous league matches. Additionally, there are some extremely young players stepping up to 1st XV duty and who are playing against much older and experienced opposition. A couple of examples: hooker, Jacob Te Rangi, is only 19 and is settling in extremely well; last season’s Colts scrum-half, Jimbo Lemon, has been a revelation – he has played just two senior men’s games and has been awarded the Man of the Match accolade on both occasions! Saturday also saw the introduction of our new young fly-half, George Shakespeare, who has only had a couple of training sessions with Marlborough. Elsewhere, the Marlborough legend that is Lemeki Moala is now back in the fold and as fearsome as ever in the front row, and tight-head prop, Frank Diggins, is finding his feet again, having had a couple of years out; and we have a young tight-head waiting in the wings, in the formidable shape of Nichaiah Boynton.
We go again next weekend at home against Sidmouth RFC. Plenty to put right in the week and training will focus on learning the lessons we have identified...
Unfortunately, due to a shortage of referees across England in general and across the two counties in particular, our 2nd XV home fixture against Frome RFC had to be postponed. Had it gone ahead, we would have seen no fewer than nine former Colts from Marlborough across the two XVs. Even more remarkable (and perhaps a Marlborough or even a Dorset & Wiltshire record?) we would have had three father & son combinations across the two squads!
