A try five minutes before the finish gave Devizes a win against a Reading team that had been ahead for most of their last league match of the season. Until then the game had been a closely fought encounter between two evenly matched sides neither of whom managed to take a decisive lead

The game took a while to come to life but on the twenty minute mark Dorliac stormed through a gap near the hallway and beat the cover defence to cross for a try. This was converted by Jonny Sharp playing alongside his brother Tom both of whom had come up through the Reading junior and colts setup.

Dorliac’s try set off a good period of Reading pressure and a fine kick from Murray-Smith set up a Reading line out in the Devizes 22 from which Borthwick just failed to score. Jonny Sharp then just failed with a penalty.

But it was Devizes who scored next with an unconverted try in the corner when their inside centre took advantage of a break by the No 10 to out flank the Reading defence. They nearly scored again soon after when Reading just held up a driving line out.

In the last couple of minutes of the half it was Reading’s turn to attack and when Devizes gave away a yellow card in illegally bringing down a driving line out, Reading opted for the scrum which Devizes illegally collapsed as Reading were on the point of pushing it over. This resulted in a penalty try and a second yellow card to make the score 14-5 to Reading at the interval.

Devizes despite their numerical disadvantage scored early in the second half when they successfully mauled the ball up the pitch and over the line. The conversion succeeded from far out to reduce the Reading lead to two points.

A Jonny Sharp penalty increased Reading’s lead to five as both teams had their chances. Reading had another chance to kick a penalty but decided not to go for the posts from a similar position a few minutes later.

They were rue this decision as after being reduced to fourteen by a yellow card, a good move involving their no 10 and centres put Devizes over under the posts for a converted try for them to take the lead.

Despite a last-minute effort by Jonny Sharp and Palmer-Owen to score in the corner Devizes managed to see the game out and claim the spoils.

Reading did gain a losing bonus point which pushed them into sixth position in the league as the ‘best of the rest’ with the top five teams at least 20 points in front of them. All in all however, a creditable performance for their first season in six years at level 6 especially given the number of injuries and other non-availabilities which affected them in the second half of the season.

Reading are now waiting to find out their opponents in a new end of season knock-out competition which combines teams finishing in similar positions across Level 6 in the South West.

Tries: Dorliac, Penalty
Conversions: Sharp J
Penalty: Sharp J

TEAM: Alex Dorliac (capt); Jonny Sharp, Tom Sharp, Stuart Borthwick, James Palmer-Owen; Alex Murray-Smith, Nathan Wheeler; Harry Wilson, Will Proctor-Searle, Steve King; Rob Cunningham, Ryan Smith; Alex Lewis, Brandon Taplin, Max Pepper.

Replacements: Joe Clarkson, Sam Bowers Jordan Gomez