There was a welcome return for Tom Sanders, who through injury made an early entrance to the game, whilst Richard Johnston made his debut for the Blues.

Newbury started the game brightly, and were camped in Reading's half for the first five minute.
After that, however, unforced errors crept in which allowed Reading to find their feet. Reading continued to threaten and dominated the second half, the Blues finding themselves 20 points down at half time with all the work to do.

After half time, the Blues went up a gear and there were signs that the patterns they were trying to play were working. An interception from Joe Wood kick started the revival, with Richard Johnston scoring on his debut. Tom Sanders added a further try and there was some hope for Newbury.

Injury to Jack Moore forced a cameo appearance from Matt Spencer in the back row. Newbury piled on the pressure towards the end, with Ben Hicks finishing off a neatly worked try. Time was against the Blues though and they came up short at the final whistle with Reading doing just enough to see out the game.

A disappointing loss where the Blues failed again to put two consistent halves together. There were, however, encouraging signs and lots to be positive about. We look forward to replaying Reading at Monks Lane on 8 December.

Blues team: Ben Hicks, Rob Drysdale, Graham Stewart (c), Ashley Taylor, Tom Erskine, Josh Winfield, Toby Bartlett, Jack Moore; Toby Thorne, Jack Muggridge; Joe Wood, David Cree, Richard Johnston, Tom Martin; Joe Binfield
Subs: Tom Sanders, Matt Spencer, David Jones

Man of the match: Toby Thorne