We've had some pretty high level coaches at Monks Lane over the years, the two with a national and international profile being Kevin Bowring, who sadly passed away in the autumn of 2024 and Ben Ryan. Kevin coached the Welsh national team for three years between 1995 and 1998 before coming to Newbury and Ben joined Blues in 2002. Kevin went on to take the role of Elite coach development for the RFU, developed the RFU level 4 and 5 coaching programmes and in the words of Toby Booth when he was coaching at the Ospreys said Kevin was, "an unbelievable influence to some of the very best Northern Hemishphere coaches," such as Shaun Edwards, Stuart Lancaster and Ben Ryan. As for Ben any rugby follower will know of his achievements with the Fiji National Sevens team and their gold medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016 defeating Great Britain 43-7 in the final. Ben was awarded the Companion of the Order of Fiji, the highest honour in the country. Some of the rugby Fiji played in that tournament was simply outstanding and watching Stags play Didcot yesterday one moment illustrated that whatever level of rugby is being played, Fijian rugby players are capable of the unexpected. Running out of defence Malakai Tupoutoutai produced an outrageous dummy to slice through the first line of cover, a dummy Ben would have been proud of. It didn't lead to a try but was one of the highlights of a long and difficult afternoon for Stags.

It was never going to be easy, Didcot second in the league having lost only one game all season and their organisation showed from the start. As a first team they were a lot more cohesive than Stags, their shape in attack was pretty good and their forwards held the upper hand, particularly in the scrum. It felt from the early exchanges that it was going to be a game much like others this season where Stags were going to find it difficult to secure field position and would be relying on their strike runners to run in tries from way out. Stags drafted in three rather mature forwards in Dan Evans, Graham Stuart and newly appointed Director of rugby Gaz Martin and many thanks to them for stepping up to make sure a pack of forwards could be put on the field. Along with the rest of the squad they gave it their all but endeavour alone was not enough against the strength and organisation of the opposition.

Didcot started quickly and won a penalty virtually from the kick off. A few phases later they won another penalty within five metres of Stags line and scored a push over try five minutes into the match. Still on the back foot and under their posts Stags decided to run the ball out and made good ground to half way but under pressure at the breakdown gave away another penalty which Didcot kicked to the corner. Stags won the lineout but a knock on gave the visitors another chance to put scrum pressure on which they did and this resulted in a second try for Didcot. From the restart player of the match Nyasha Maphosa made a strong run through the middle which set up a promising position for Stags. Unfortunately another penalty given away led to another defensive lineout and another maul from which Didcot rumbled over for their third try to take the score to 0-17 just before the half hour mark. Stags then began to put some phases and good offloads together and when Euan Baird broke out from inside their half, Samuela Tamanivalu was on hand to take the scoring pass and run in from just inside the visitors half to put Stags on the scoreboard. The successful conversion by Travis Boulton brought Stags back to within ten points. Within two minutes Stags scored again, this time after Malakai Tupoutoutai took a quick tap and fed Euan Baird to go over for Stags second try and all of a sudden Stags were back in the game, trailing only by five points. But then a series of errors by Stags, allowing the ball to bounce from the restart and giving away a penalty led to Didcot scoring their bonus point try wide on the left. The visitors scrum continued to dominate and just before half time Didcot scored their fifth try to take the score to 12-29 going into the interval.

The second half started with Malakai making a good break but Stags lost the ball at the breakdown by giving away a penalty. Another Didcot kick to touch, another lineout to defend for Stags, another penalty and another try for Didcot within five minutes of the restart. It was clear that Stags were on the wrong side of the referee but they kept going and there could be no faulting their ambition by running out from within five metres of their try line. Unfortunately a knock on gave Didcot another attacking scrum. They moved the ball wide and scored their seventh try after a missed tackle to take the score to 12-41. The game was now going into the final quarter and it was punctuated by a number of penalties given away by each side. It also saw two more tries scored, one for Stags and one for Didcot. Stags score came from a penalty which resulted in Malakai running in under the posts. The successful conversion by Travis Boulton put the score at 19-41. Almost immediately Stags had another chance to score but the ball was knocked on in a very promising position and then almost at the end Didcot scored their eighth try to take the final score to 19-48 to the visitors.

A disappointing day all round for Stags but well done to the team for sticking at it to the end. Debuts were made by Nyasha Maphosa, Gaz Martin, Travis Boulton, Ben Hillier and Samuela Tamanivalu, although Samuela has played for Blues once at Trowbridge. Thanks to all involved including Stags coaches, manager, referee Bruce Bladon and the visiting Didcot players and supporters who made the short journey down the A34. It can often by the case that when a second team comes up against a first team from another club, the first team are going to have an advantage simply in terms of continuity of selection, combinations who have played together many times and a game plan that is practised on the training field. And this certainly showed on the weekend. However Stags go again on 28th February away at Farringdon, who are one place above Stags in the league table and we wish them well.

This date is also our Pink Charity day for Newbury Cancer Care. Blues entertain Keynsham that day and will be looking to put right the 18-32 defeat down there last November. The charity day is always a fun day at Monks Lane, tinged with a certain amount of reflection for all those who have been touched by this horrible illness yet knowing we are doing what we can to raise funds for such an admirable charity. Lots going on at the club this day, great food, great music post match and hopefully great rugby. As in previous years we are hoping for a full house at Monks Lane to cheer on a Blues team who are now up to sixth place in the league table and are playing some impressive rugby. Let's hope this continues as the weather improves for the final run in to the season.