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Wootton Bassett  67  vs  Ivel  0  - Away  Southern Counties South
 
 
Pictures in section below from Dave Fowler
 
 
Ivel travelled to league leaders Wootton Bassett on Saturday and were under no illusions of the hard task in front of them, Ivel were forced to make several changes due to injury and unavailability's giving 3rd team captain Neil Coram his debut in a 1st XV jersey. 
 
Wootton started the game very quickly and it was easy to see that they were a well organised side with plenty of power and pace, after 10 minutes Ivel were 14 points down and were constantly under pressure, things got even worse when prop James Cook was forced off with an injury after only 20 minutes.  Struggling to win any clean ball Ivel continued to defend for the rest of the half going into the interval 41 - 0 down. 
 
The 2nd half started the same as the 1st with Ivel conceding a try straight from the kick off with some strong running from the Wootton centres.  Another prop injury, this time to Jamie Richie after a collapsed scrum meant that scrummages went to uncontested, with this platform Ivel started to play some rugby with No8 Craig Fellows carrying the ball effectively. 
 
With the game becoming much more open Ivel began running the ball, Joe Covu counter attacked well from deep and when Ivel put some phases together they looked threatening with Louis Jones and Joe Covu coming closest to scoring, however the Wootton defence was very strong and Ivel couldn't find the scoring pass.
 
Ivel coach Owen Salmon commented 'Wootton were a well drilled and powerful side with some very good individual players, it's easy to see why they are top of the ladder, it was pleasing to see that none of the Ivel players heads dropped and they kept playing right until the final whistle.  We've had a difficult start to the season having played some of the strongest teams in the league so far but we are targeting teams in the run up to Christmas as must win games starting next weekend at home to Minety, we've got some hard work to do in training in the coming weeks'.
 
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Ivel  0  vs  Wootton Bassett  43     Saturday 31st January 2009
 
 
Pictures in section below from Dave Fowler
 
 
Ivel welcomed high flying Wootton Bassett to the showground on Saturday expecting a tough encounter after losing comprehensively to them earlier on in the season.  The Barbarians kicked off and immediately gave away a penalty allowing Wootton to get deep into their territory. Some great defence saw Ivel steal the ball at the breakdown and clear their lines, however the kick chase was poor, the ball moved wide and a try was scored out wide.  No sooner had play restarted Wootton scored again and Ivel found themselves 14 - 0 down after only 10 minutes.  Some stern words from skipper Kris Shore saw the Ivel team wake up and start to play rugby. The rest of the half was quite even seeing some great defence from the hosts with 2nd row Steve Blight to the fore.  Just before half time Ivel attacked deep into the visitors 22, fly half Sam Armitstead leading the way, unfortunately from a great attacking position the half time whistle went allowing Wootton a sigh of relief.
 
Ivel started the second half with the strong cold wind behind them looking to score first and put pressure on their visitors, however this half started the same way as the first with Wootton scoring 2 quick tries to effectively kill off any hope of a comeback.  The next 20 minutes was again even with both sides playing well, it was only in the last 15 minutes when their much bigger and fitter opponents scored a series of tries as Ivel's work rate fell away.
 
Ivel coach Owen Salmon commented, 'We didn't start well in both the first and second halves which let Wootton take control of the game, it was obvious to see that in the last 15 minutes our lack of fitness told but it's only to be expected after defending for long periods of the game'.