London Nigerians 48, Basingstoke 31

BASINGSTOKE pressed the self-destruct button in the first half to turn round trailing 31-5.

This proved a mountain too high to climb. In a match the visitors could and should have won, their play was riddled with elementary errors.

Every time they got into the game, they gave away the ball too easily and their opponents punished them.

After two minutes, the home side passed along the line, their centre was not put to ground and his winger cut a line to score under the posts for a converted try and a 7-0 lead.

'Stoke fought back by scoring a simple try when the forwards recycled the ball quickly for Simon Humberstone to put Buckland through a gap and feed seasonal debutant Carl Saunders to score in the corner and trail 7-5.

The rest of the half saw a catalogue of errors give Nigerians four unanswered tries. On 12 minutes, 'Stoke failed to retreat 10 metres at a free-kick inside their own 22 that was taken quickly.

A second quick tap led to a 12-5 lead, the referee failing to recognise the second quick tap.

On 25 minutes, under pressure on their own line, 'Stoke won their scrum ball only for Humberstone to fumble the ball. Nigerians took advantage to add seven points.

'Stoke got into the home 22 from the re-start but, from an attacking position, lost the ball, which was cleared.

With Van Jaarsveld and Parsons covering in the 'Stoke half, there seemed no danger but, running the ball back, a miss-directed pass was collected for Nigerians to score under the posts for a 26-5 lead.

The visitors did not give up but on numerous occasions were turned over in promising positions in their opponents' 22.

This happened five times in 15 min-utes before, on 45 minutes, Nigerians scored another try for a 31-5 lead.

'Stoke came out firing in the second half and, as early as the third minute, reduced the deficit by seven points.

From possession just outside the 22, Humberstone made a break to feed Buckland and was again on hand to take the return pass to score and con-vert his own try.

On 50 minutes, after re-cycling the ball from a lineout, Jim Dixon crashed over to leave the visitors trailing 31-17 but still believing they could win.

A missed tackle on 55 minutes allowed the home side to add a sixth try.

The crucial period of the game followed with 'Stoke camped in their opponents' 22 for 10 minutes but without scoring.

When Nigerians eventually cleared to the halfway line, they won the ball to recycle and score out wide for a 41-17 advantage.

'Stoke again came back and, on 67 minutes, were awarded a free-kick which Byett took quickly to feed Brian Parsons, who ran 30 metres to score. Humberstone added the extra points to close the gap to 41-24.

'Stoke continued to attack and Matt Francis scored from a lineout, with a fine touchline conversion from Humberstone reducing the arrears to 10 points.

With eight minutes, left renewed hope appeared but the miracle was not to happen and, with the last move of the game, Nigerians ran in a converted try.

Afterwards, hard-working and impressive head coach Dixon said: "We lost the game in the first 30 minutes with some very poor play and by giving away too many soft tries.

"Too often we were tackling too high and allowing them to make ground. This was a game for the taking and we let ourselves down. We now have a week off to come out against Thanet and put things right."

Basingstoke: B Parsons; C Saunders, S Buckland, V Feausi, J Van Jaarsveld (rep O Rogers); S Humberstone, A Byett; S Collins, M Evans, P Perkins, A Wilson, C Hampson, R Northcote, S Appleby (rep M Francis), J Dixon. Rep not used: I White.