Oxford Harlequins II 75-12 Reading
Counties 1 Tribute Southern North
Reading finished 2024 going down to a heavy defeat to league leaders Oxford Harlequins II. The Oxford team are now unbeaten in all thirteen games they have played and have scored an average of 58 points a match at home.
Reading went into this match on the back of a home defeat by Windsor with a changed line up enforced by injuries and non-availabilities which meant they were fielding a new combination at half back and in the back row.
The Oxford side are a good well drilled team with powerful runners and a quick and elusive back three. They play a style of running rugby, moving the ball to the outsides and supporting the ball carriers which is well suited to their all- weather pitch. A surface Reading are not familiar with. Harlequins are also strong in defence playing on, or just over, the off side line to quickly stifle attacking efforts from their opponents and win turnovers.
Reading for large parts of the match could not cope with this and any footholds they achieved in Harlequins territory were swiftly turned into try scoring opportunities for their opponents by combinations of swift passing and powerful running.
The match was effectively over as a competition by the 25th minute by which time Oxford had run in five tries including a hat trick for speedy right winger Benhamin Vernede and a try each for full back John Henderson and left winger Matthew Marenghi one of which was converted to give them a 27-0 lead.
Reading at this point stemmed the tide for a short period with Oxford for once unable to clear their lines. From one such attempt Steve King picked up a loose ball and made good ground before passing to Will Proctor-Searle who beat off a tackle before putting Tom Burrows over in the corner for an unconverted try.
However, this did not stop the one-way traffic for long and Harlequins added three more tries before the break, one of which was converted to make the score 44-5.
The second half followed the same pattern as the first with three tries in the first fifteen minutes as the Oxford team continued to run at a tiring Reading defence.
On the hour mark, Reading added to their earlier score. After a storming run by Joe Clarkson which took Reading into the Harlequins 22, Reading won a series of penalties and from a scrum in front of the posts the ball was moved to Jos Clarke who forced his way over for a try which Charlie Attard converted to make the score 61-12.
The last quarter was more competitive with Reading having more of the territory and winning more penalties but they were unable to make anything of them and Harlequins broke out to score two more converted tries
Reading now go into a Christmas break and return to play High Wycombe at home on Saturday 4th January,
READING
Tries: Burrows, Clarke
Conversions: Attard
TEAM: Jason Carr; Tom Burrows, Harry Morgan, Jos Clarke, Ben Fuller; Charlie Attard, Lucas Dance; Dave Southworth, Luke Palmer, Steve King; Jamie McIntyre, Lewis Donnelly; Joe Dottson, Will Proctor-Searle (capt.), Joe Clarkson.
Replacements: Ben Zacharias, Mike Bolton, George Coker
Report by Peter Chidgey
