Gosport and Fareham RFC Senior 1XV vs Eagles Senior 1XV

Recap

Effingham & Leatherhead 22 – 29 Gosport & Fareham

The Eagles travelled the 66 miles down to Gosport and Fareham in their penultimate league match of the season. It was Gosports’s last game at home, so they were determined to get a win in front of the very large home crowd.

The Eagles, missing a few players, started brightly and very quickly were on the attack. The ball was worked to their flying winger Robert Ellis who only had the Gos fullback to beat. As Ellis dived towards the line in the corner, the Gos fullback tackled him very high as he took him into touch. An obvious penalty try and yellow card to everyone watching and playing but unfortunately the only person not to see it was the Hampshire referee, who deemed it a fair challenge and awarded the resulting lineout to Gos. The Eagles seemed to be on the wrong side of the ref for the majority of the first half with a 15-0 penalty count against them but despite this, Eagles managed to end the first half only 12-5 down after conceding 2 tries and scoring a superbly worked try through Antony Penny, who carved a great line through the Gos back line.

The second half was a much more open affair and both sides enjoyed periods of good possession. Gos capitalised well during an Eagles yellow card, 10 minute period for a deemed dangerous tackle by back row Luke Collier. With the extra man advantage, Gos scored 2 further tries. However, as has been the case since Christmas, Eagles refused to give up and bounced back to score 2 of their own through 2nd row Peter Sockett and winger Robert Ellis. The Eagles on the ascendancy were forcing their passes a little bit to try and create the opportunity to take the lead but one of these passes was intercepted and the Gos centre raced down the pitch and despite a last-ditch tackle and claimed hold up from centre Ben Lines, the referee deemed it a try and Gos were ahead 29- 15. With time ebbing away, Eagles mounted yet another attack and with clever switching of the play, worked the ball down to winger James Turner to score the bonus point try and this was converted to take it to 29-22, the final score.

Head coach Dan Blythe said,” It is very difficult to lose a game when we have been playing so well. We were a bit frustrated at some of the decisions today, as the game could have been quite different, but I am proud of my guys and how their never-say-die attitude gained us 2 valuable points.” He added, ” With Winchester, Andover and Old Tonbridgians all losing, we are now safe in the League and look forward to welcoming Eastleigh to Browns Lane on Saturday, for our last game of the season.”

Eagles team:

1. Paddy McDougall
2. Joe Brown
3. Joe Baker
4. Sam Maycock
5. Pete Sockett
6. Luke Collier
7. Jamie Thompson
8. Ollie Rees
9. Matt Manning
10. Brian Collins
11. Antony Penny
12. Ben Lines
13. Luke Blythe
14. Robert Ellis
15. Ed Waugh
16. Joe Forrester-Walker
17. James Turner
18. Dom Cornwell