Westbury 7, Minety 27

JON Parker was forced to watch a video nasty of Westbury's first home defeat of the season at the hands of leaders Minety.

The Westbury coach spent Saturday evening studying the action from Leighton Green and the footage did not make happy viewing.

Parker first employed video as a coaching aid against Colerne three weeks ago and he plans to capture all the home matches on film until the end of the season.

If, as the saying goes, the camera never lies, then Parker has some serious sorting out to do on this evidence.

Time and again the experienced Minety forwards slowed the play of the ball and frustrated Westbury into giving away silly penalties.

Parker conceded Minety were the better side on the day but felt the scoreline flattered the visitors.

He said: "We were only 20-7 down with five minutes to play and I think that score would have better reflected the game I watched.

"The teams were very evenly matched in terms of ability, but Minety were a little bit older and had far more experience.

"I thought they used that to their advantage in the way they played the referee.

"Minety wound us up and we reacted. We gave away far too many penalties with silly mistakes in the contact area."

Minety took the lead when they overpowered Westbury with a rolling maul from a five-metre line-out. Fly half Jack Ward converted.

Westbury drew level when Chris Vaughan converted an excellent try from hooker Dan Rae, who broke several tackles to score beneath the posts.

Right wing Ryan Dowling rounded off a flowing Minety move to restore the visitors' seven point advantage before half-time.

Two penalties from Ward in the opening 20 minutes of the second period increased Minety's lead to 20-7 as Westbury were pinned in their own half.

The White Horse men fought hard and were close to another score of their own when Minety skipper Martin Coe intercepted a pass and sprinted 80 metres unchallenged to kill the game off.

Ward sealed the victory with another successful conversion, maintaining his 100 per cent record for the game.

Parker said afterwards he was disappointed to lose at Leighton Green for the first time.

He said: "We are usually strong and well organised at home and very few teams turn us over.

"We don't like giving teams an easy ride so there will be a few harsh words spoken in training this week."